Things Best Forgotten
by Tailsisreal
Summary: Only one creation in the entire Sonic universe is truly evil. Truly capable of deeds that even Dr. Robotnik would cringe at. A Tails fanfic which asks you, "Can you feel the sunshine?" Lots of Son/Tails brotherly!
1. Chapter 1: Accidental Discovery

Things Best Forgotten

Summary: Every child outgrows their toys, just as every toy is an object with no feelings that could care less about its neglect. But, what if what seems to be an innocent toy from the past isn't really what it's supposed to be? And, what if that innocent toy isn't just an inanimate object? What if it has evil in every crude, misshapen stitch…?

Disclaimer: Regrettably, I don't own Sonic the hedgehog, Tails, or any of the other characters in this story. (And, I don't even want to own Tails Doll!) They are property of Sega and Sonic Team. All references to Sonic X are also belonging to 4Kids TV.

OK, a new fanfic for me! This one I have to thank Asher Tye for giving me a huge lecture in the background of TD in order to write. This is kind of a funny twist on an old, non-gory horror story that features Tails as the main character. (No, I never get tired of writing Tails fanfics, and I probably never will!) It is set on Mobius after the end of Season 3 of Sonic X (because of a few references to characters in those cartoons). Also, I am pretending that Cosmo's death either never happened or Tails has gotten over it because he won't be dwelling on her in this story. This will be a post as I write kind of thing, so don't look for daily updates! Although, I will try to update my profile with information on this story as I keep writing. This was just a great idea I got from a sudden inspiration and I started writting on impulse, so we'll see how it turns out in the end! Read, review, and enjoy!

Chapter One: Accidental Discovery

A beautiful spring day in the Mystic Ruins. Everywhere the little creatures and insects are busy going about their daily routines as the more intelligent, dominant species also live out their own daily lives in peace and tranquility. In a small, humble house built at the top of a large cliff overlooking the ocean far below, a familiar yellow fox was busily occupying himself with some standard spring cleaning.

_A clean home is a happy home!_ Tails thought to himself as he meticulously threaded a duster around the small crevices in his short bed's ornate headboard. He smiled to himself at the satisfaction of getting around to the much needed cleaning he had been neglecting for so long. _If I keep this up, I may wind up like Ella!_ the fox thought to himself as he began giggling at his own joke. Unfortunately, this caused him to shake the duster in his hands hard enough to release a cloud of dust right into his sensitive nose. The result of this careless accident was a full two minutes of powerful sneezes from the poor fox's irritated nostrils as he tried to stop the uncontrollable itching the dust caused inside them. After the sneeze attack finally subsided, the allergenic young kitsune quickly dropped the duster in exchange for a tissue from a box of them on a small table next to his bed. As he finally ridded his irritated nostrils of the foreign contaminant, the fox breathed a sigh of relief, along with another good chuckle at his own carelessness.

"Ha ha ha! Good thing Sonic wasn't here to see that! I would never live it down for a week or more after doing something as silly as that!" Tails commented to himself as he tossed the used tissue into a waste basket in front of him and reached for his duster again to finish his work. His hand was stopped suddenly, however, by a sudden unexpected voice from behind.

"Good thing I wasn't here to see what, bro?" the voice of a certain blue hedgehog called out from the doorway into Tails' room.

"Sonic?!" Tails shouted as he did a quick about-face, assisted by the fact that he instinctively leaped about a foot in the air at the sudden voice. He saw the speedy hedgehog cover his mouth as he tried to stifle his laughing at the fox's panicked face at that very moment. "Hey! What's so funny?! I told you that I don't like you sneaking up on me like that!" Tails yelled back at the rude hedgehog as he quickly erased the look of shock from his face and instead gave his older brother a deadly glare.

This only served to make Sonic laugh even harder, however, as Tails did his best to look mean by narrowing his eyes and trying to imitate a scowl, but came up looking more like he desperately needed a bathroom break instead. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha…! Sorry, little bro! But I just couldn't resist! And the look on your face was… IS priceless!" Sonic finally managed to speak as his chest still heaved from his continuing laughter.

Tails stared at his brother for a minute longer in anger before he too got caught up in the laughing fit of his older brother. They both kept chuckling together at the funny situation in mutual friendship until both had tears forming in their eyes from the intense laughter. Finally, Tails broke the resulting silence with his reply, "OK, Sonic. You got me this time! Now what did you come for this time, other than to scare me half to death?"

"Heh, I just wanted to stop by for a quick visit, little bro!" Sonic truthfully answered as he finally managed to control his laughter. "What cha' doin' inside on a day like today anyways?"

"Oh, just a little spring cleaning," Tails answered. He had figured that during this weekend while Sonic was staying at Amy's house he could finally get a chance to give the small house the good cleaning it desperately needed. He had started with the Tornado, of course, making sure that every gear and gismo on the deceptively simple biplane was cleaned, oiled, and properly reinserted for peak performance on its next emergency mission against the evil Doctor Eggman. Now, he had actually just about finished his final chores as his and Sonic's shared humble abode almost seemed to shine from the fox's diligent attention and recent cleaning.

"Looks sharp, bro!" Sonic complimented the pristine house that he had never seen so neat before in his life. "So, wanna go on a run with me now, buddy?" he asked in an effort to get the overworked kit out of the house and into some good exercise on the wonderful day outside.

"Maybe in just a minute, Sonic," Tails refused as he stored the duster away in a small utility closet that he had spent a whole twenty minutes reorganizing earlier today. Sonic almost groaned as he saw the organized closet, knowing that for the next couple of weeks his little brother would constantly be yelling at him to put things back where they belonged instead of in a pile on a shelf somewhere like he usually did. "I really need to go through my closet full of old stuff while I'm at it," Tails explained to his adopted big brother while he ignored the hedgehog as Sonic shook his head with a soft groan.

"Can't that wait, bro?" Sonic pleaded with his almost obsessive-compulsive younger sibling.

"I might as well do it now while I'm thinking about it, Sonic," Tails countered, "Otherwise, you know I'll just forget for another whole year, and the mess will only get worse!"

Sonic simply stepped out of the fox's way as he let him pass back into his room and open the doors to his badly neglected closet. Sonic knew that once Tails set his mind on something, there was no power on this or any other universe or parallel dimension that could stop him. He almost laughed though at the fact that almost ten years ago, Sonic would have to plead and beg to get the then very young fox to clean up his room at all, and now he was unable to get Tails to NOT clean it up. Admitting defeat, Sonic walked back down the narrow stairway to the first floor of the small house which was a combination living room, kitchen, and dining room all rolled into one. "I'll just be watching TV until you're ready, then!" Sonic called back up the stairs after him, in an effort to at least shame Tails into speeding up his cleaning frenzy because he would know that the impatient hedgehog was waiting for him below.

Tails response was less than heartening, however, as the blue hedgehog heard his brother's voice call down the stairs to his ears as he walked over to the refrigerator to grab a cold soda, "OK, but don't make a mess while I'm not down there!"

_Good grief! And I though Amy could be bad sometimes!_ the hedgehog wondered to himself as he popped the seal on his soda can and prepared to take a long gulp before the voice from upstairs again interrupted him as if on cue.

"And don't you even think about spilling that drink, Sonic!" Tails shouted down the stairs from his room, having overheard the tell-tale sound of a can of soda opening.

"Yes, Ella!" Sonic sarcastically shouted back up the stairs as he heard Tails give a short burst of laughter at the hedgehog's quick joke. He settled down on the freshly vacuumed sofa, making sure to place his drink carefully on a coaster on the small coffee table in front of him, before propping up his feet on said table and flicking on the small television set in front of him.

"Feet off the table, Sonic!" the voice of the upstairs fox again called down with uncanny timing.

"Geeess, how does he do that?" Sonic muttered to himself as he reluctantly removed his shoes from the already slightly smudged surface of the coffee table in front of him.

* * *

Tails continued to sort through the garbage and old junk in his closet as he did his best to organize the things he found into piles of what he could still use and what was officially now junk. Most of the things in his closet turned out to be spare parts and plans to projects that he had completely forgotten about years ago. "Wow, here are the original blueprints for the Tornado 2!" he exclaimed as he found the old documents describing in great technical detail the myriad of improvements he had made in a huge overhaul of Sonic's original Tornado biplane after coming to live with the hedgehog for the first time. Looking at them for a minute, Tails set them aside for storage in a more secure and permanent location later.

That's when his eyes suddenly seemed to be drawn to a small chest in the corner of his closet that the blueprints had obscured from sight all these years. "I don't remember this thing," Tails muttered as he pried the antique-looking box from the closet floor and set it down next to him in his room. The box looked almost ancient and seemed to be engraved with several strange patterns that for some reason sent chills up the young fox's spine. A sinister looking lock seemed to guard the mysterious contents of the chest as Tails couldn't help but wonder where the key was hidden. Quickly searching the rest of his now mostly cleaned closet for the wayward key, Tails finally decided that he would have to put his mechanical expertise to use on the ancient padlock.

Removing a small bit of metal wire that he had kept for who-knows-what-reason from the pile of junk he had just excavated from his messy closet, Tails began picking the intricate locking mechanism until it finally snapped open with a loud click. A strange feeling of dread overcame the young fox as he prepared to open the lid, but his curiosity quickly outweighed his seemingly irrational fears as he slowly lifted the lid off the box on its creaky hinges in back.

What lay snugly stuffed into the bottom of the small chest was enough to make the yellow kitsune laugh out loud. He removed from the mysterious chest, a very horribly made and crude rag doll of himself. It looked very old, worn and most of the atrocious stitch-working seemed to be loose or frayed. The two tails where not uniform in length or thickness and for a mouth the doll only had a crude zig-zagging smile like that of a generic jack-o-lantern. Strangest of all, though, was a long antenna coming out of the ugly doll's head that ended in a small, strangely glowing red gem. The crystal struck Tails as seeming very similar to a chaos emerald except it was cut more like a real emerald would be in jewelry stores.

Tails smiled to himself as he examined the strange creation. He didn't recognize the doll at all, or even ever recall making it, but that fact that it was in his closet and in his shape convinced the fox that the ugly thing was indeed his. _Man, I guess this was when I figured out that I should stick to machines and not making stuff from fabric,_ Tails commented to himself as he took a guess at the history of the eerie stuffed animal in his hands. _Heh, I must have been really young when I made this thing; it's horrible! What was I trying to do, cross myself with a moogle and Frankenstein's monster at the same time?!_ Tails laughed as he began to place the strange creation back in its box, but a sudden urge seemed to compel him that he wasn't ready to store the horrid doll away just yet.

Shrugging his shoulders, Tails instead placed the doll under his bed to examine again later as he reorganized everything back into his closet as best he could. Finally finished with his clean up, he quickly dashed back downstairs to inform Sonic that he was ready for their run now. After a quick minute to re-clean the living room coffee table and chew out Sonic for messing it up already, the door slammed shut as both the hedgehog and fox dashed out into the sunshine to enjoy the afternoon together. Under the young fox's bed in the now vacant house however, a dim red glow seemed to radiate from underneath the well made and tucked in covers hanging off either side.


	2. Chapter 2: Sugar Rush

Things Best Forgotten

Disclaimer: Regrettably, I don't own Sonic the hedgehog, Tails, or any of the other characters in this story. (And, I don't even want to own Tails Doll!) They are property of Sega and Sonic Team. All references to Sonic X are also belonging to 4Kids TV.

Boo-yah! It's chapter 2 already! Am I good or what?! (head inflates like a helium balloon until it pops, spewwing gross pink slime everywhere) Eeeeww! Sorry that you had to see that! It's now time to recognize the first reviewers of my newest story! My thanks to cari la fenix, StormyEye, Asher Tye, Rae Logan, Super Dragon, Koike, Double Dee Dee, Drandu, Shika Kev Prower, ChibiRyou200, brave kid, Zachary W, and Pokelad! Wow, pretty impressive for just chapter one! I recognize a lot of you loyal reveiwers from my other story, Lethal Mutation, but there are a few new faces in the group as well! (Did you know that I have already had more visitors to chapter one of this story than for the first three chapters of Lethal Mutation combined?! Pretty sweet!) Anyways, thanks to all those loyal followers of my work that make my feverishly paced (but luckily this time no real fever) typing fingers worthy of recognition and constantly busy! By the way, this chapter's title will make sense as you read along, so don't worry about me losing it just yet. XD Enjoy! (as if I even need to say that...)

Chapter 2: Sugar Rush

Tails and Sonic returned hours later from their enjoyment of the day spent dashing aimlessly from one scenic vista to another as the sun was just setting into the vast expanse of ocean before the cliff on which their house stood. Mesmerized by the awe inspiring sunset like always, Sonic and Tails lingered outside the house long enough to feel the warth of those final rays of light and watch the glowing orange orb submerge itself completely below the far off waves before finally proceeding indoors.

"Today was lots of fun, Sonic!" Tails thanked the blue hedgehog as he walked into his house first and immediately proceeded towards the kitchen on the opposite wall of the large room which was actually the entire first floor. On his way to the refrigerator he deposited two grocery bags and a plastic hardware store's sack on the small counter that divided the living room half from the kitchen and dining room sections. "Thanks for taking me into town so I could get some of the stuff we needed," he finished voicing his gratitude for the considerate hedgehog.

Sonic let a single laugh escape his mouth as he heard Tails speak his thanks. _Only my little bro would thank someone for doing nothing but giving him more work to do! He would have gone into town on his own anyways without me, but he acts like I did him a favor!_ Sonic smiled at his younger brother as Tails immediately proceeded to store the groceries in the proper locations without so much as a grumble or complaint at the mediocre task. "Nah! It was no sweat, bro! I didn't really have a place in mind to go today anyways," Sonic simply downplayed his own role in a game that Tails and he had always played with each other. It was a kind of mental 'hot potato' in which the loser was the one stuck with the compliment at the end.

"Yeah, but without your help, I wouldn't have been able to go shopping for those other parts I needed, too," Tails shot back, passing the praise to the less deserving hedgehog yet again as he pointed to the bag on the counter that was marked with a hardware store's logo in front.

Sonic tried to come up with a quick comeback that would force the two-tailed fox to admit defeat and accept his rightful compliment, but his mind failed him as Tails once again won their little game of 'pass the praise' for the millionth time. _Some day I'm gonna give my little bro a compliment that even he can't refuse!_ Sonic resolved as he gave up and looked back at his buddy in the small kitchen. He saw the young fox finish putting away the new groceries and reach for a snack in the fridge. Sonic couldn't believe his eyes as Tails removed a can of soda and a slice of chocolate cake from the cold interior of the older refrigerator. "Whoa there, little bro! What cha' think your doin' eatin' stuff like that at a time like this?!" Sonic rebuked his brother. "You know that too much sugar before bed means that you'll be up all night with more of your crazy nightmares! Besides, you can't possibly be hungry after the supper we got back in town! You ate clear through that whole chili dog stand AND my wallet!" Sonic reminded Tails of how his earlier appetite had cleaned out an entire hot dog vendor as well as all the money in the hedgehog's pocket at the time.

"I know, Sonic," Tails responded as he grabbed a fork and proceeded to take a bite of the cake anyways. "But, remember that I have a bigger metabolism than you do, so I have to eat more to stay energized!" Tails used his usual excuse as crumbs of half eaten cake flew out of his mouth while he tried to say 'metabolism.' Tails grinned slightly in embarrassment as he noticed he was talking with his mouth full and making a mess of the freshly cleaned carpet. The hungry fox washed the remaining cake in his mouth down with a quick swig of cola before sitting down on the sofa in front of the TV with his brother and resuming his explanation. "Besides, I haven't had any bad nightmares like that since I was just a little kit!" Tails reminded the concerned hedgehog.

Sonic knew better than that, but decided to let it slide since both the cake and soda were now already half finished. He flipped on the TV and surfed the channels for anything good to watch while Tails simply continued his late night snack, content to watch whatever his big brother decided to stop on. However, it was a sad night for television as nothing caught the blue hero's eye as particularly interesting to watch. After a few minutes, in which time Tails had finished off his second meal, Sonic finally decided to call it quits and head off to bed early tonight. As always, Tails followed him back upstairs to retire as well, since, for some strange reason, the fox always felt compelled to go to bed when his older brother did as well.

As he opened the door to his second floor bedroom, Tails suddenly saw something lying on his bed that gave him a shock. Sonic, witnessing his little brother jump halfway to the ceiling in surprise, quickly asked the obvious question to the frightened kitsune, "Hey, Tails! What's wrong, little bro?"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing, Sonic," Tails reassured his brother as he now calmly walked into his room and picked up the strange object from his bed that it had been laying on. Sonic also followed him into the small room and took a good look at the horrid object in Tails' hands.

"Gee, bro! When did you make that thing?" Sonic tried to sound serious as his voice cracked at the effort of suppressing his laughter at the absolutely ugly recreation of his little brother in cloth. "Sorry to say it, buddy, but you should probably stick to machines and not stitching!" Sonic joked with his brother.

"But that's just it, Sonic!" Tails objected as he told the hedgehog of the strange doll's appearance earlier that day. "I found this thing in a really old looking box in the back of my closet today, but I don't ever remember making it!"

"Heh, it could just be a gift someone gave you when you were really little that you never played with, so you don't remember it too well," Sonic guessed as he shrugged his shoulders at the mysterious origin of the poorly constructed doll. "Wouldn't blame ya none either, bro! That thing's just plain ugly!" Sonic amended.

"That's probably true," Tails admitted the very likely situation. "But, what scared me a minute ago was that I definitely remember putting this thing under my bed before I left today, so how did it end up on top of my bed if no one was around to move it?"

"Who knows bro?" Sonic was quick to alleviate his brother's irrational fears that Sonic was already attributing to too much sugar too late at night. "One thing's for certain, though. It didn't just fly up there on its own while we were gone."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Sonic," Tails once again sided with the hedgehog's logical explanation. "I probably just thought that I put it under my bed earlier when I really didn't."

"Sounds just as reasonable as anything else to me!" Sonic agreed. "But, you might want to make sure to put that thing away for good tonight. It's starting to creep me out a little." Sonic finished as a cold shiver ran down his spine after taking a good look at the misshapen doll's beady black eyes.

"Yeah, me too," Tails confessed as he again placed the eerily strange doll of himself under his bed. "Well, goodnight, Sonic," the sleepy eyed fox said as he crawled into his bed for a good night's rest.

Sonic walked back out of the room as he paused in the doorway to turn around and address his brother one last time, "OK, bud. Now get some sleep so you can wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow, 'kay? And remember, that goes double for you!" Sonic joked as he turned out the room's light and closed the door behind him. He heard his little brother snicker at the witty joke before the door completely shut and he made his way to his own bed for the night.

Tails fell asleep almost instantly after the action and intense chores of the day. His mind wasted no time in shutting down all but his most vital functions as the young kitsune fell into a deep, restful slumber almost upon impact with his head on the pillow behind him. The yellow kit instinctively rolled over on his side under his covers to allow his two large tails to dangle off the other end of the bed as they waved slowly in his sleep like furry, white-tipped pendulums. It wasn't long, however, before the unconscious fox became aware of the beginnings of a dream in his mind's eye as he fell into an ever deeper slumber.

* * *

Tails found himself suddenly standing in the middle of a black void. Actually, he couldn't be sure that he was in the middle because there was absolutely nothing but darkness all around him. Frantically searching about for a light or some kind of reference point from which to get his bearings, the fox quickly felt the presence of something else in the void directly behind him. Doing an immediate about-face, Tails spun on his heels to confront whoever, or whatever, was stalking him. Predictably, however, the yellow fox spotted nothing in the surrounding void that was once behind him. Not a moment later than the young kit began to assume that he was just paranoid, the feeling of something watching him from behind again struck the confused fox.

Wheeling about as quickly as he could to get a quick glimpse of his mysterious shadow, Tails again found absolutely no one in the direction he now scanned using his highly tuned eyes that could usually see with the barest amount of light in the darkest room. "Nothing," Tails spoke to himself to calm his frayed nerves, "That's all there is out there, just lots and lots of nothing!" As soon as he finished his words, however, a high pitched giggle, like that of a human child, broke out of the darkness to his left.

Quickly craning his neck around to see the source of the noise, Tails again found nothing in that direction as his body began to quiver slightly in fear at the unsafe situation. Before he could start to calm himself down again, the noise repeated from the opposite side of him, to his right. He jumped slightly as he turned to face the strange, and very unsettling, noise. Again, nothing except more nothing met his eyes. Officially freaked out beyond imagining, Tails tightly wrapped his tails around his chest for comfort, before he suddenly became aware that he could not move them at all because they had been restrained by something invisible. Trying now to run for his life, Tails realized that his whole body was now immobile as some power kept all his limbs from moving more than an inch.

Terrified, but completely trapped, the young fox found himself being slowly rotated in place to face a small object that was levitating by itself behind him. How the strange thing got so close to him without him being able to see it, Tails had no clue. He did however understand one thing about the odd figure before him now, it was what had him trapped, and it didn't seem to want to just let the young fox go.

A voice came from the silhouetted figure that his mind prevented him from seeing any shape of it in detail. "I have waited a long time for this moment, Miles," a voice of malicious, yet almost child-like tone rang out in Tails' mind. Tails was further shocked as he understood that the creature before him wasn't speaking audibly, but rather projecting its words into the fox's brain telepathically. "Ha ha ha ha haaaa! That's right, Tails. I can hear your thoughts. I can feel your fear running through you. You can't hide anything from me!" the voice continued in a steady, menacing threat.

"Who are you?! And what do you want from me?!" Tails shouted to the still obscured object that had him terrified.

"Mmmmm… Delicious! Such wonderful taste, pure terror! Only the purest of hearts give out the most untainted fear!" the demonic voice spoke as it seemed to relish every moment of Tails' terror and attempts to thrash free of the strange force holding him. "Your struggling is pointless, my original. Yes, indeed I was made in your image because it has been my duty all these years to relish this moment. The moment that I steal your soul!" The maniacal figure seemed to change its voice entirely at the last sentence into a deep, threatening sound that could easily have been owned by the Devil himself.

"What?! NOOOOOO!!" Tails began screaming as he fought furiously to break free of the invisible force field holding him in place.

"Ha ha ha ha ha haaa! It's pointless you pathetic flesh-bag! Even your two tails and your 'oh so caring' little blue hero cannot save you now! After all these years that I have waited, finally it is time! I am going to drag your soul down to the very depths of the underworld, so far that not even worst of criminals would ever join you!" the deep voice shouted as it began laughing in the most genuinely evil way imaginable. Tails stopped struggling at the pure malice in the tone of the voice as his eyes became twice as large as they already were. Finally, the voice stopped its terrifying laughter and two glowing red eyes with a third glowing sphere floating above them came into focus on the small object levitating before the frightened fox. "Now, Tails, I have only one last question for you. Can you feel the sunshine?"

Tails was stumped at the odd question before he noticed a strange force begin to seemingly tear his body in half. He didn't know what was happening to him, but he could feel the very essence of his life force flowing out of his body as his whole body slowly went limp. Realizing that he could do nothing to fight back against this unknown entity, Tails again managed to summon all his remaining strength to let out one last blood-curdling scream. The entity kept laughing as the fox screamed its lungs out, knowing that soon the body which was now still capable of making noise would continue to do so even seconds after it was already dead.

Tails felt powerless, drowsy, and drained as he felt himself slip away into the hands of the demonic presence that held him. He kept screaming anyways, out of the sheer terror of the traumatic moment. Just as he felt all the power in his body leave him, everything around him disappeared in a bright flash. The dark void he had been in was suddenly dispelled as the terrified kit's eyes shot back open in his bed back in his own room safely at home.

Sonic saw his younger brother's eyes pop open as the two-tailed fox immediately sat up in his bed in the fraction of a second. "Whoa there, Tails! You're OK, buddy! It was just a bad dream!" Sonic shouted out to the extremely scared fox cub. He had heard Tails' screaming a second ago and had wasted no time in dashing to his little brother's side in a flash. Now he watched as Tails' heaving chest slowly stopped its rapid rise and fall and his heart ceased to pound so hard against his white furred chest that Sonic could see its every beat.

After a couple of minutes to almost completely calm down, Tails quickly turned his head to look back at the blue hedgehog sitting near the head of the fox's bed with a concerned expression on his face. "Oh, Sonic! I'm sorry! I just had the worst nightmare ever, and I…" Tails began to apologize for waking his big brother at what seemed to the now conscious fox to be very early in the morning.

"Don't sweat it, bro!" Sonic interrupted Tails' fast talking explanation. "All that matters is that it's over now."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Tails agreed as he was very thankful that Sonic was never grumpy from being woken up when he was resting unless the blue hero was extremely wore out. Admittedly, he was very happy to see Sonic right after the terrifying nightmare he had just gone through.

"Now, how 'bout cha' listen to me next time I tell ya that eating too many sweats before bed is a bad idea?" Sonic took the opportunity to teach the young fox a lesson that would hopefully prevent any future occurrences of this situation.

"OK, Sonic, you were right…" Tails admitted as he wondered how a soda and slice of cake could have such a traumatic effect on anyone.

"Glad ya learned your lesson, bro. Now let's get you cleaned up and back to bed," Sonic said as he grabbed the kitsune's arm and proceeded to pull the sitting fox off his horribly wrinkled bed from all the thrashing about the fox had done in his nightmare.

Tails wondered what Sonic meant by 'get you cleaned up' before he suddenly became aware of a large spot on his bed that he hadn't noticed earlier was soaking wet. _I wet the bed?! Oh man, this is just embarrassing… How could any nightmare be that real?_ He looked at his older brother with eyes that were shaking and half full of tears as Sonic noticed what the fox felt so sorry about.

"Don't worry about it, little bro! Everyone does that once in a while. I'm just glad that you're OK after that bad dream you had," Sonic consoled the distraught kit. He saw that Tails was still unconvinced as he tried again to comfort the humiliated fox that was now crying outright, "Hey, I know you, bro. It must have been something really scary to make you do that by accident! Don't you worry about it, OK? You go take a nice long bath to relax and clean yourself off while I deal with the bed sheets and mattress, deal?"

"Promise not to tell anyone?" Tails asked the hedgehog as he slowly stopped the tears that were still silently falling from his eyes.

"Hedgehog's honor!" Sonic answered as he put one hand over his heart and raised his other palm in the air as if taking a solemn pledge to some king that he served under.

Tails gave a short chuckle of relief at the blue hedgehog's actions and wording as he finally started to feel comfortable again. "OK, Sonic," Tails sealed the promise as he walked slowly out of the room to the nearby bathroom at the end of the second floor's hallway.

Sonic, true to his word, immediately began stripping the soiled linens from the poor fox's bed. He didn't even mind the gross odor and wet feeling of the bed sheets as he carried them out to a small pond next to the house and dunked them into the water along with a good deal of powdered detergent. Sonic then pressed a hidden button at the base of the stone lip surrounding the pool as Tails' custom-made outdoor washing machine came to life spinning the water and detergent together in the open-air pond. As he watched the swirling linens, Sonic couldn't help but worry a little bit for his previously terrified brother. He knew that things like this happened to everyone, but he also knew that this particular instance would stay in his brother's memory for a long time._ Poor little guy, I probably would have died from either fright or embarrassment or both if I was him just now._

Leaving the late night laundry to soak on its own, Sonic returned to the house and managed to manuever the short soiled mattress down the interior staircase and outside as well. Luckily, the mattress was lined with an non-absorbant outer skin that meant all the blue hedgehog had to do was wash off the surface thoroughly to erase all traces of his brother's accident. Returning the mattress to Tails' room upstairs, Sonic caught another glimpse of the horrid doll that the fox had carelessly thrown under his bed before going to sleep that night. The blue hedgehog once again felt a sense of unease as he quickly set the mattress back on its frame to obscure his sight of the poorly constructed facsimile of his little brother. Just as he left Tails' room again, he saw the young fox open the door to the bathroom and step back out with a towel still around him as he tried to dry all his thick yellow and white fur from his short bath a minute ago.

Sonic smiled at the sigh of relief Tails made upon finally returning to begin completely calm yet again. "Lookin' a lot better now, bro!" Sonic addressed the fox as it still tried to dry off further.

Tails looked up at the quick remark and saw Sonic standing in the hallway with a large, comforting smile on his face and giving him a classic 'thumbs up' gesture. "Thanks, Sonic," Tails replied to his extremely considerate older brother. "I feel a lot better now."

"Glad to hear it, bro! Now let's get you fixed up and back in bed for the rest of the night," Sonic suggested. He saw a quick fleeting spark of fear jump through the kit's eyes at the thought of simply returning to sleep after the nightmare that he had just had.

"Ummm... Sonic? I'm really glad for all you've done to help me out, but... could I,maybe... sleep with you tonight?" Tails muttered as he shyly made his request.

"Sure, bro," Sonic accepted without a moment's hesitation. "But if we don't hurry to bed soon, it will already be daylight by the time we both get to sleep!" At the hedgehog's last statement, but Mobians entered Sonic's slightly larger room across the hall from Tails', and they both climbed into the one person bed in the corner. After a little rearanging of bodies to get both occupants of the overstuffed bed reasonably comfortable, Sonic and Tails quickly drifted back off into a relaxing sleep laying side by side. Sonic smiled before he completely dozed off, noticing that his little brother had unconsciously wrapped the blue hedgehog's body protectively in his two tails as a way to ensure that Sonic didn't leave him. Tails' face was also serene as both Mobians finally got a good long rest.


	3. Chapter 3: A New Companion

Things Best Forgotten

Disclaimer: Regrettably, I don't own Sonic the hedgehog, Tails, or any of the other characters in this story. (And, I don't even want to own Tails Doll!) They are property of Sega and Sonic Team. All references to Sonic X are also belonging to 4Kids TV.

Hey, everyone! Long time, no post! You won't believe how busy I've been (and still am!), but I haven't totally stopped writting as you can see! This may be the last chapter for a little while, at least until my life gets a little less hectic! Thanks very much to my repeat reviewers: tailsfan007, ChibiRyou, Rae Logan, Koike, Zachary W, Asher Tye, Kitsune-SuperFox, cari la fenix, brave kid, Super Dragon, Drandu, Double Dee Dee, Shika Kev Prower, and Pokelad! Man, do I feel loved to have such loyal fans! Anyways, this chapter is somewhat longer than the first ones have been; just consider it a reward for your patience up till now. What surprises is Tails and Sonic in for from the infamous Tails Doll this time? Well, not much, but I guarantee you'll love it anyways!

Chapter 3: A New Companion

Morning came too quickly to the fox and hedgehog that had been up a good part of the night from Tails' vivid nightmare and its accidental results. Never one to sleep in long, if at all, Sonic still woke up with the sun, feeling rather well rested despite the excitement that had disturbed his sleep earlier. Carefully, the blue hedgehog managed to escape the embrace of his little brother's furry appendages without waking the peacefully snoozing fox. After the fright Tails had gotten last night, Sonic had no problems in allowing the young fox to sleep in this morning to make up for the lack of sleep he got last night. Tiptoeing silently downstairs, Sonic made his way towards the kitchen in order to have a hot breakfast ready for his slumbering little brother when he got up.

Hardly an hour later, the scent of freshly cooking bacon and eggs assaulted the unconscious kit's sensitive nose as he slowly woke to the welcome smells. At first, Tails forgot the events of last night as he quickly sat up in Sonic's bed in surprise. His memory caught up with him a second later as he remembered why he wasn't waking up in his own room. Slightly paranoid at the possibility of a repeat of his accident in his own bed last night, Tails tentatively felt his side of the bed with his hand to check for dampness. Relieved that he hadn't relieved himself in the bed again, Tails shot a glance over to where Sonic had been sleeping last night. He wasn't very surprised to see that the blue hedgehog had managed to slip out undetected while he was still sleeping, and Tails now understood where those delicious aromas were coming from and who was responsible for making them. He was about to hop out of bed and head downstairs for his share of the great smelling food when he happened to notice an odd lump in the covers on Sonic's side of the bed.

Curious to the strange anomaly in the otherwise pristine bed sheets, Tails slowly lifted the heavy comforter off of the mysterious object. His hands both shot up to cover his mouth as a short yelp of surprise escaped from his throat at the revelation of the object resting comfortably on the bed next to him where Sonic had been laying earlier. Posed on the mattress before him so that it was staring right at Tails, was that strange doll he had found in the closet the day before.

"That you, bro?" Sonic's voice was heard calling up the stairs from the kitchen below. Despite the soft noise he was producing in cooking breakfast for two, he had overheard the yellow kit's short yelp from upstairs and probably assumed that the sleeping fox had accidentally rolled out of bed or something.

"Yeah, I'm all right, Sonic," Tails shouted loud enough for the hedgehog one floor down to hear. Tails picked up the eerie doll and again took a close look at its strange and oddly repulsive stitch-working. He paid careful attention to the mysterious red gem attached to the strange mannequin's head by a long, drooping piece of metal wire. Something still struck the yellow fox as familiar about the crimson colored crystal as it seemed to radiate its own inner glow, albeit so slight that no one would be able to normally see it. _Sonic's right, _Tails thought to himself as he set the doll back down on the bed carelessly, _this thing really does creep me out._ _Maybe I'll just put it back in its box after breakfast._ That's when Tails' mind brought up the interesting question that he couldn't believe he hadn't asked himself earlier. _Wait, how did that thing end up right here where Sonic was sleeping? It's not like it can move on its own, so…_

Tails only had to think for a moment to realize the only possible answer. _Sonic?! Why would he put this thing here to try and scare me after helping me so much last night?! Then again, it's the only thing that really makes any sense. _Tails kept pondering the puzzle in his mind as he slowly got out of bed and walked towards the stairs to the kitchen/dining room below. By the time the young fox got down the stairs and entered the conjoined living room, he already thought he had the answer to the strange riddle. _Sonic probably thought that I would like that doll keeping me company while he went downstairs because it might have been one of my favorite stuffed animals a long time ago. He would never do something like that to scare me after what happened last night, even though he does sometimes have bad timing with his little practical jokes._This brought back an instance in Tails' memory to him of when Sonic had thought it would be funny to dismantle the Tornado's engine completely, forcing Tails to rebuild the entire thing perfectly in minutes once Eggman had unexpectedly attacked later that day.

"Yo, Mobius to little bro, come in please!" Sonic tried to get Tails' attention as he caught the fox with eyes glazed over, betraying that the yellow kit was lost in one of his frequent daydreams. "Are you gonna stand there all morning, or do you want some grub while it's still hot?" the azure hedgehog brought his brother's mind back to the task at hand.

"Oh, sorry, Sonic," Tails said as he snapped back to reality at the sound of his big brother's voice and the sight of the large breakfast laid out on the small kitchen table in front of him. "I was just kinda spacing out there for a while," Tails explained as he took his seat at the far end of the table that offered a good view of the living room beyond.

"I could kinda tell, bro," Sonic playfully chided his little brother as he also took his seat across the table from Tails. "Well, what da ya say we just dig in?" Sonic recommended as he filled his plate with various sausages, strips of bacon, a couple pancakes, and filled his glass with orange juice.

"Sure, I'm starving!" Tails quickly answered as he heaped twice as much food as Sonic had taken onto his own plate. He opted however to fill his glass with refreshing cold milk instead of the hedgehog's preferred juice. He saw Sonic scowl slightly at the tall glass of the white substance. The blue hedgehog hated almost any dairy product besides cheese and ice cream. Tails remembered asking him about it once and getting an answer that had something to do with him being lactose intolerant or something like that. Tails ignored the look of disgust on his older brother's face as he began to shovel the freshly cooked food into his mouth.

Sonic could hardly believe his eyes as his little brother quickly finished off his overstuffed plate and started to reload it from the food laid out on the table between them. "Good grief, little bro! Where do you put all that after you eat it?!" Sonic questioned his seemingly championship eating brother. He never ceased to be amazed at how his small brother could have such a huge appetite all the time and yet never gain a pound from eating too much. Of course, the fox's bottomless stomach did explain why the kit would spend a whole half hour in the bathroom some nights, but Sonic never tried to let Tails know that he had noticed this as well. _Some things are better off a secret, _Sonic thought to himself as he tried to change the topic in his mind from the somewhat unsophisticated area he had unintentionally arrived at. _Remember your motto big guy; don't ask, don't tell. I think this is one of those times that you really don't want to know._

Tails had not interrupted the hedgehog's thoughts as he had sensed the fact that Sonic's last question was one in which he really didn't want an explanation anyways. Besides that fact, Tails was once again busy devouring a plate full of scrambled eggs and sausage patties which rendered him unable to respond except with a small shrug of his shoulders. The fox started to take a long drink from his tall glass of milk in front of him as he momentarily looked up from his plate so as to tilt his head back without spilling the white liquid all over himself. A split second later, however, the mouthful of milk Tails was about to swallow was all over Sonic instead as Tails suddenly spit the milk back out his mouth like a high-pressure dairy product shower head.

"Hey! Awww, gross, bro!" Sonic shouted as he quickly jumped to his feet after the soaking he received from his little brother. As he quickly grabbed a napkin to try and wipe the repulsive white liquid off of himself, he noticed that Tails wasn't even moving and seemed to be transfixed by something in the living room beyond the hedgehog's shoulder. "Hey, you OK, bro?" Sonic changed quickly from anger to concern as he noticed the young fox's large blue irises had now expanded to fill almost the entire surface of his large white eyeballs. Turning to trace his younger brother's trance-like stare, Sonic saw the source of the fox's sudden surprise. Sitting on top of the TV, just visible over the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room, was that weird stuffed animal that vaguely resembled Tails.

Tails didn't even seem to notice that he had given his older brother a shower of liquid dairy products as he began muttering to himself at the sight of the doll staring back at him. "No… it can't be! I… I left that thing on Sonic's bed! It can't be right here, it just can't! This doesn't make any sense!" Tails finally broke his gaze off the figure of the doll sitting comfortably on top of the TV as if it had been posed there as he ducked his head almost into his still half full plate of food and grabbed two tufts of yellow fur on the top of his head in both fists.

Sonic noticed the fox's extreme reaction to the diminutive doll as he immediately tried to calm his brother back down. "Take it easy, OK, bro? It's just an old stuffed animal that looks like you. There's nothin' to be afraid of!"

"Yeah, Sonic, but it just keeps following me!" Tails shouted, still scared out of his wits.

"Tails, you know better than anyone that a stuffed animal can't just be following you around!" Sonic tried to reason with the distraught fox cub.

"But remember last night, when it was on my bed even though I put it under my bed before we left?" Tails brought up the similar situation. "And then this morning when you put it in bed with me after you got up? Tha…" Tails cut himself off in mid sentence at the sudden revelation he had just had, "Wait a minute! You've been doing it all along! With your super speed and your…"

"Whoa there, little buddy! Back the mental breakdown train up for just a sec!" Sonic broke in, slightly angry at his brother's last assumption that he would try to scare the kit again after what happened last night. "I haven't ever touched that stupid doll, I swear! I didn't move it on your bed yesterday evening when you weren't lookin', and I most certainly didn't place it in my bed after I got up this morning either!"

"But, that's the only thing that makes any sense, Sonic!" Tails shouted again as he faced down the blue hedgehog that he thought was lying to him. "You know that thing scares me, so stop it already!"

Instead of showing that he was deeply hurt by the fox's sudden lack of trust in him, Sonic simply sighed as he buried his own rising anger before it could escalate the situation at hand. "Look, little bro," Sonic began his defense as he struggled to keep his voice perfectly calm and indifferent despite the hurt he suddenly felt at the kit's accusations. "You know me. I do like to play little jokes on you from time to time, but don't I always stop when I can tell that it's goin' too far? Remember how I cleaned everything up for you last night and made sure you were all right? There's no way I would do something like this to you after seeing you last night, and you know it. Now just calm down and forget about that creepy doll, 'kay?"

"I… But… Oh, I'm sorry, Sonic!" Tails said as he snapped back to his senses and realized that he had just accused the same person who had comforted him, cleaned his soiled bed, and slept with him last night for trying to play a cruel joke on him now. Tails looked sorrowfully into his older brother's eyes as tears welled up in his own for his brutal words to him a second ago.

"Hey, don't 'cha go gettin' all teary eyed on me again, bro," Sonic stopped the fox as the tears just started to fall. "I know ya didn't mean a single word ya just said to me earlier. It's just the fear still left from last night in ya tryin' to escape."

"Thanks for always understanding me, Sonic," Tails spoke to his brother in the sincerest of gratitudes while he wiped his short burst of tears away with one of his yellow furred arms. Emotional outburst finally over, Tails immediately got back to the question at hand, "But, if you haven't been moving that doll around, and I certainly haven't, then who is?"

"Beats me, buddy!" Sonic light-heartedly replied as if an inanimate object moving around the house on its own wasn't anything to be worried about. "Maybe you have been carrying it around with you, but you just never noticed. Like I said yesterday, that thing was probably a toy you had when you were little, so you might be unconsciously taking it with you wherever you go and just not remember it. Kinda like looking for your shoes everywhere until you realize that they're still on your feet!"

Tails let out a short burst of laughter at the inside joke. A week ago, Sonic had gotten a rather large cut on his foot after destroying one of Eggman's machines and landing in the sharp, metal debris from it scattered all over the ground. Tails had made sure to put a large bandage over the wound once they managed to get home, but the process involved Sonic removing his trademark footwear. The hedgehog was forced to go barefoot the rest of the day until they both went to bed that night. Since he always took his shoes off before bed though, Sonic simply put them back on first thing when he woke up the next morning. However, a cup of coffee and an hour later, Sonic remembered his injury the other day and that he was supposed to still be barefoot. Tails laughed again as he recalled the frantic shouting of Sonic as he dashed around trying to locate his special footwear, only for Tails to point out half an hour later when the hedgehog finally stopped moving long enough for him to notice that his shoes were already on his feet! Needless to say, the blue hedgehog had been so embarrassed that his blushing had almost turned his whole face purple.

"Ha ha ha! Sonic, you always know how to make me feel better!" Tails thanked his comical older brother.

"Glad I'm good for somethin' more that a hedgehog sized target board," Sonic joked as he finally managed to wipe his face and body clean of his brother's earlier milk eruption.

"Oooops, sorry, Sonic, I didn't mean to!" Tails apologized as he finally noticed the mess he had made a minute ago.

"Nah, don't sweat it, bro. As long as I don't have to drink the stuff, I have no problem in wearing it!" Sonic alluded to his great dislike of the white fluid he now wiped off of the table as well.

"Still, if I really am carrying it around with me all the time because I like it, why does that thing freak me out so much?" Tails brought back the subject as he resumed eating his breakfast at a somewhat more normal pace.

Sonic just shrugged his shoulders as he also resumed his interrupted meal. As the blue hedgehog reached for another sausage patty with his fork, a sudden loud knocking on the front door across the house in the living room startled both Mobians. "Who would come over this earl…" Sonic started to wonder out loud as a yell came from the direction of the closed door.

"Soooonnnniiiicccc! Hey, are you here, you runaway date crasher?! Open this door!" the voice of Amy was clearly heard from the doorstep outside as the solid wooden door was pounded by a great force from the other side. Clearly the aggravated pink hedgehog wasn't waiting for someone to answer the locked door as she attempted to use her hammer to barge inside.

Sonic and Tails exchanged a quick glance at each other. Sonic motioned with his eyes and an almost imperceptible nod of his head towards the stairs to the second floor as he made a figure with two fingers of a person jumping off a ledge and running away. Tails gave a single nod of acknowledgement as he understood the unspoken plan. Sonic would run upstairs and jump out the second story window in his room while Tails let Amy inside so the pink hedgehog wouldn't see the blue one get away. Both brothers stood up and walked into the living room together. With a quick nod to each other again, Sonic took off up the stairs in a blue flash. Tails hesitated a moment before walking up to the pounding door that couldn't take much more abuse.

"I know someone's in there!" Amy's voice again shouted through the sturdy door. "Tails! Open up or else I'm going to smack you into the next century!!"

The irate yelling and threats coming from the other side of his house's only entrance offered very little incentive for the young fox to comply. Tails wondered again why he had to put up with Amy's crazed rampages while Sonic always got to run off. With a heavy sigh and a slight cringe, the yellow kitsune at last opened the thoroughly tortured, solid oak door.

Amy's giant Piko Piko Hammer suddenly stopped in mid-swing as the front door to Tails' house opened, barely missing clobbering the poor fox in the gut as he stood in the now open doorway. "Well, it's about time, Tails!" Amy huffily shouted as she barged her way indoors past the kitsune that was still cringing in anticipation of the near-traumatic hammer whack. "OK, Tails, now tell me right now where Sonic is hiding!" Amy yelled at the young fox that had just managed to close the front door on its miraculously still intact hinges.

"What makes you think that Sonic is here?" Tails calmly tried to engage the irate pink hedgehog in a game of wits in which he would be the assured victor, instead of a game of brute force in which he would soon become flatter than Sonic in a falling ceiling trap in some treacherous zone somewhere.

"Don't you try to trick me, Tails! I know Sonic came here and stayed with you yesterday night instead of going on his date with me! As a matter of fact, for all I know, YOU might be the one who made him ditch me last night!" Amy began jumping to conclusions as her hammer again came up in a menacing pose to strike the frightened kitsune. "You'd better start talking fast, Tails, or I might take my anger out on you instead!!" the pink hedgehog threatened with absolutely no hint of doubt present in her voice to convince Tails that she wouldn't follow through with her plot.

"Please, Amy, I didn't do anything; I swear!" Tails shouted as he backed up against the door shaking his extended hands in front of him at the mad female's advance.

"Don't tell me that! I can tell that he was here because there are TWO plates on your breakfast table! And I also heard that you and him went into Station Square together yesterday evening, too!" Amy practically screamed as she came within inches of the trapped fox. "Now, where did my little Soniku go, or do I have to beat you until he shows up to save the his screaming little brother?!"

Tails though fast before answering because he could tell that a wrong answer now would mean a painful lump on his head for the next week or so. Finally, the frightened kit lowered his arms to his side and slumped his shoulders in mock defeat. "OK, fine, Amy. You got me. Sonic did come here yesterday afternoon and decided to spend the rest of the day with me, but he never mentioned a date! Then, this morning we had breakfast together, and he just dashed off on his morning run before you got here," Tails gave the convincing and somewhat true response to Amy's question. Never very talented at lying however, Tails involuntarily crossed his twin tails behind his back like normal people would cross their fingers while telling a fib.

Amy, in her rage, missed the tell-tale give away of the fox not giving a straight answer as she tried to think of where Sonic might have gone. "Did he happen to tell you where he was going by any chance, Tails?!" Amy again questioned the trapped fox as her voice's volume decreased only slightly.

Tails gulped down a knot in his throat before he answered her forcibly asked question, "No, he just said he was going for a run somewhere and that he would be back sometime later, but he never said when either." At the compounding lies Tails was being forced to supply to keep his head from growing a painful lump and his best friend from having the same fate, his two tails behind his back wound into a tight spiral as he visibly cringed at the effort of trying to keep his composure.

Amy noticed the painfully obvious strange actions of the yellow kit at last, but, luckily for the kitsune that was a horrible lier, she came to the wrong conclusion as to his source of discomfort from his current body language. "Hey, Tails! Are you OK? You look like you're about to explode or something," Amy softened her voice at the straining yellow and white fox cowering in front of her.

"I… I just remembered that I had to go to the bathroom really bad when you knocked!" Tails quickly rolled with the excuse Amy had just given him. "Sorry, but I really can't hold it anymore! I'll talk to ya later!" Tails shouted as he quickly rushed past the confused pink hedgehog and up the stairs to the second floor in record time.

"Hey wait! But what about Soni…" Amy's tried to ask the retreating fox before she heard the sound of the upstairs bathroom door slamming shut. "Ooooohhh! Why does everyone always run away from me like that?!"

Realizing that Tails wasn't going to be coming back downstairs for a while and that she had probably learned all she could from him anyway, Amy turned the leave the vacant living room via the front door. However, she paused for a moment to examine a strange stuffed animal on the TV set near her that she hadn't noticed earlier. _Wow, I didn't know that Tails could stitch!_ she thought to herself as she rotated the horrific doll in her hands to see every aspect of the shoddy workmanship. _Actually, looking at this thing, I don't think he can, really. Maybe if he wanted me to, I could get Vanilla to teach him how so he could fix this thing up,_ Amy pondered telling the motherly rabbit about Tails' most recent fascination. Finally making up her mind, she quietly replaced the grotesque doll on its previous perch._ Nah, he probably didn't even intend for me to see it at all. He'll probably just stick to machines anyways!_ the pink hedgehog thought as she let herself out the door to Tails' house and calmly walked off towards her own home in hopes of finding Sonic there waiting for her.

* * *

Tails was very relieved when he finally heard the front door to his house shut with a soft slam. He did not dare to sneak back out of his bathroom to check if the irate pink hedgehog had really gone, however. Although his story about needing to go to the bathroom really badly had been mostly a hoax to escape from the dangerous range of Amy's hammer, Tails had found that his little lie, like the others he had given Amy a minute ago, held a grain of truth as he sat down on the small toilet to answer nature's call.

A minute later, Tails opened the bathroom door as he prepared to walk out, relieved in more ways than one, as a sudden voice scared him and made him glad that he had just finished emptying his bladder a second ago.

"Awww, Gees, bro! Next time light a match or somethin', will ya?" Sonic called out from the hallway in front of Tails where he had just materialized out of nowhere.

"Ahhhh! Sonic! Don't do that to me!" Tails shouted as he was once again surprised at how the hedgehog's speed allowed him to seemingly appear out of thin air.

"Heh, sorry, bro. But, hey, thanks for takin' care of ole Cupid's Hammer for me!" Sonic quickly mentioned. "That whole bathroom emergency thing was good timing!"

"How did you know what I said to her, Sonic?" Tails asked at the shock of the blue hedgehog overhearing a conversation that he was probably a mile away from by the time it took place.

"Meh, I tried to go out my bedroom window like we planned, but it was stuck. I was about to try yours instead, but Amy was already inside and could have heard me sneakin' around. So, I decided to lay low because you probably wouldn't let her upstairs anyways!" Sonic detailed his botched escape plan and quick substitute.

"Then that means you heard me lie," Tails spoke as his face went downcast.

"Well, I can't say that any kind of lie is a good thing, bro," Sonic tried to console his morally distraught brother, "But, in this case, what you did was to protect someone else and yourself, so I think we can let this one slide, OK, buddy?"

"That still doesn't make it right, Sonic," Tails stared at the blue hedgehog with large, blue eyes as he wondered how he could just let the fact that he had just lied to Amy several times slip on by as if it was nothing.

"No, it doesn't, little bro," Sonic replied as he mentally berated himself for not having such high moral standards like his younger sibling. "And, I'm the one who made you do it, so it's my fault, and I'm sorry for putting you in that situation, little buddy."

"It's OK, Sonic," Tails decided to dismiss the trivial matter. "I don't mind covering for you every now and then."

"Sure ya do, bud!" Sonic revealed how much he really knew about the way his actions affected his little brother. "I even wonder myself if it's really fair to have you deal with that crazy woman when she's mad like that while I just hide under my bed! I mean, I'm supposed to be the big hero, right? But here I am, scared to death to face an angry girl and sending my little bro to do it for me!"

"Yeah, but I bet we'd both rather fight Eggman's robots any day than Amy when she's angry!" Tails joked as he and Sonic started laughing together at the comical truth.

"You said it, bro!" Sonic spoke between guffaws, "Amy treats dating as if it were a war! She probably even calls it her secret campaign, Boyfriend Blitzkrieg!" At this hilarious statement, Sonic added to the humor by suddenly snapping to attention and raising a perfectly stiff arm to the sky in a mockery of a famous dictator that he had just compared to his girlfriend.

A moment later, Sonic and Tails totally lost it as they began laughing uncontrollably. Both creatures now rolled on the hallway floor in laughter as they clutched their sides in sharp pain at the self-induced spasms. Tears from both the pain and the intense laughter welled up in their eyes as they slowly both regained their composures.

"Man, I should get a patent on that one!" Sonic commented on his quite possibly the best joke ever invented. "Come on, bro. I say we go for a run this morning and work off that huge breakfast in time for a good lunch, my treat!"

"You're on, Sonic!" Tails shouted as he dashed downstairs into the living room again.

"Hey, no head starts!" Sonic yelled after him as he pursued the yellow fox to the door. He noticed however, that Tails had not left the house yet and instead stood next to the TV with something in his hands that he was looking at. "Come on, bro! Just leave that weird thing there and let's go catch some sunshine!"

"Hang on, Sonic," Tails replied. "If I really am carrying this thing around with me everywhere, and I just don't know it, then maybe I should take it with me this time, too. I mean, after all, spending more time around it might make it seem less scary to me."

"Whatever you say, little bro," Sonic impatiently shot back at the stalling fox. "Just don't be gettin' all chummy with that little doll and forget about me!"

"Ha, yeah right, Sonic!" Tails countered the hedgehog's sarcastic concern. "Like this ugly thing could ever do anything to replace you!"

"You never know, bro!" Sonic jokingly responded. "So, are ya ready now to go get some fresh air?"

"Sure thing, bro!" Tails answered with a mischievous grin as he clutched the doll loosely in two hands, not needing anything but his tails and feet for the time being.

"Hey, that's my line!" Sonic commented as his younger brother instantly dashed out the open door and away down the stairs leading up to his house on the cliff top. Sonic walked outside calmly and shut the door securely behind him before looking back off into the distance at the rapidly fading image of his speedy little brother. "Heh, this won't take too long to catch up!" Sonic muttered to himself as his feet peddled in place in a red and white blur. Then, the blue hedgehog shot off like a bullet to easily overtake his brother despite the fox's tremendous speed and sizeable head start.


	4. Chapter 4: The First of Many

Things Best Forgotten

Disclaimer: Regrettably, I don't own Sonic the hedgehog, Tails, or any of the other characters in this story. (And, I don't even want to own Tails Doll!) They are property of Sega and Sonic Team. All references to Sonic X are also belonging to 4Kids TV.

Notice the above disclaimer? I just realized with this chapter that I hadn't put a disclaimer on this story at all until now! Major Ooops! You guys have to remind me of these things! Anyways, if you are wondering who I'm refering to as 'you guys' it would be my wonderful reviewers of course! I've gotten new reviews from peter-skywalker, Kitsune-SuperFox, danielle, Koike, Asher Tye, Shika Kev Prower, Rae Logan, tailsfan007, Kitsune Disciple, cari la fenix, Super Dragon, Pokelad, and brave kid! I've also picked up a couple new names as well! Congrats to Momoko T. Kitsunee for joining the long list of reviewers that enjoy my work! Also, an anonymous reviewer named Eggthrax has joined us as well. I am curious, however, as to why such a familiar name would appear at the same time its creator, Drandu, fails to review at all. Hmmm...

Anyways, this chapter took me a while to write, mostly because of my recent bad health and busy schedule. I almost feel like this chapter also should have been a oneshot on Sonic and Tails brotherly because of all the wonderful moments between the two in it! Don't worry though, another familiar face does appear in this chapter as well, if only briefly. (I'm going to get flamed for what happens to him, though; I'm sure of it!) Whoops, time for me to zip it before I ruin the story! If you want to know what I'm talking about, just read on and don't forget to review!

Chapter 4: The First of Many

Tails couldn't believe how fast Sonic had caught up to him. Then again, on second thought, it wasn't too hard to believe anyways as the blue streak pulled right up alongside the high-speed traveling fox. Tails hazarded a glance off from his current path to see the blue hedgehog just beside and now slightly ahead of him. If he hadn't have been needing to breathe so hard to keep up this pace, Tails would probably have laughed at the fact the Sonic now stared at him with his arms crossed in boredom while the hedgehog ran, only facing backwards!

"Come on, little bro! That little doll thingy of yours must be slowin' ya down!" Sonic taunted as he made a show of giving a large yawn and resting his head on his arm despite going well over a hundred miles per hour with no sight of the road ahead at all.

Tails still couldn't believe, after all these years, how Sonic could run so fast and still act like he was half-asleep, not to mention traveling backwards! Of course, the yellow fox had not even begun to use his true speed yet, either. Slowly gripping the ground below his feet with less and less of his red and white shoes as his speed increased, Tails started putting his namesakes to work in creating a large furry propeller behind him that had the effect of the thrust from a rocket engine on the fox's already high-velocity traveling body. Tips of his shoes now skimming the ground beneath him but never touching, Tails took off in a blinding flash of yellow and white hovering inches above the ground.

Sonic, of course, had absolutely no trouble in keeping up with the kit's new speed, although he was forced to turn around and face forward now. Racing side by side, the two sped along the empty countryside with no real care for their currently unknown destination. "This is more like it, Tails!" Sonic shouted out to his partner by his side.

Tails agreed with Sonic silently as he gave a quick nod of his head. Speed may not have been Tails' greatest natural talent, but having lived with the fastest thing alive for most of his life had definitely improved the fox's performance incredibly. Coupling this with the bonus of his second tail, Tails was very hard to catch when he wanted to be. The feeling of the wind rushing by as fast as the scenery was exhilarating for the young kit and reminded him again of why Sonic loved his special talent so much. Running almost on autopilot, Tails kept up the pace with the blue streak next to him, knowing that Sonic was still keeping his speed a notch or two down from his true top speed to accommodate the young fox.

Sonic kept running at what he considered a still decent pace for a good five minutes or so until he glanced back to check on Tails again. Although the speed they were currently travelling at caused the droplets to stream off the fox's face to either side almost as soon as they formed, Sonic could tell that Tails was sweating buckets by now and could probably use a nice break. He smiled to himself though as he saw the look of sheer determination on the fox's face, however. He understood that his little brother would keep going at this pace until he fell over dead, rather than disappoint his big brother by calling for a much needed rest. Finding a nice, open, grassy knoll that they were about to pass in a second, Sonic planted his unstoppable feet and skidded to a halt.

Tails noticed Sonic's motion and immediately duplicated the maneuver gladly. Coming to a complete stop in seconds, Tails let his worn out furry appendages fall to the ground behind him since they were too tired to hold up any longer. He doubled over with his hands on his knees as he panted furiously for air with even his tongue hanging loosely out of his open mouth. Sweat had already soaked almost every inch of the fox's body as all of his thick fur stuck matted to itself in great disarray from the incredible speeds a minute ago.

"Gee, bro! You OK?" Sonic worriedly addressed the hyperventilating fox as he walked over to put his arm on Tails' shoulder for support.

"Sorry, (pant, pant) Sonic," Tails replied after a couple more minutes to catch his breath, mostly. "I guess I'm (pant) just a little out (wheeze) of shape," the yellow fox explained.

"I don't think so, little bro!" Sonic unexpectedly replied, which prompted the worn out kitsune to raise his eyes to meet the blue hedgehog's own. "I think that just now ya kept up with me for longer than you've ever done! Normally ya collapse after only a few minutes! You must be working out whenever I'm not around, eh, bro?"

"Not (pant) really, Sonic," Tails truthfully replied. Slowly he managed to get his leaden feet to move his body forward up the gentle hill in front of them. The tired yellow fox quickly laid himself out spread-eagle, including one tail each on either side of him, face up towards the sky on the gentle curving crest of the grassy knoll. He felt the relief as the cool grass and even more comforting breeze served to rejuvenate his tired and lifeless limbs.

Sonic saw his little brother stretch out on the hilltop to rest and decided to join the young fox as well. He picked a spot right next to the relaxing fox as he placed his hands behind his head for a pillow, careful to avoid his large blue spines that really weren't that sharp anyways, and crossed his legs which rested on the downward slope of the hill. Glancing back at Tails after a minute, Sonic realized that the young fox had already closed his eyes entirely. He didn't have to wonder if his little brother had fallen asleep for long though, since a very soft sound started coming from the reclining fox next to him.

_Heh, I keep tryin' to tell him that he snores, but Tails just won't listen!_ Sonic thought to himself as he listened to the rhythmic breathing of his napping companion. Sonic wasn't tired at all from the earlier run that had wiped out poor Tails as the blue hedgehog quietly returned to stretching out to bask in the sun's golden rays. Nevertheless, tired or not, Sonic also drifted off into his own world a minute later as he closed his eyes while lying alongside Tails' resting body. The blue hedgehog wasn't asleep, of course, as a big smile of contentment stayed plastered to the hero's face. Sonic was simply daydreaming about the many wonderful things he had in life, the greatest of which was lying right next to him at that very moment.

* * *

_Argh! Trees, trees, TREES! Everywhere I go is just more stinkin' trees! Where is the exit to this stupid forest anyway!_ a shadowy figure thought angrily as it dashed through a dense woodland forest. Rage getting the better of the lost individual, he planted a mighty punch with his special two-spiked gloves into the nearest trunk of an unlucky tree that happened to be closest to him. The mighty blow actually proved to be enough to split the decades-old, living lumber in half at the spot the fist had connected with the wood and caused the unfortunate tree to fall noisily onto the forest floor.

_Ooops,_ the figure thought as the small opening in the forest canopy now left by the missing tree allowed a beam of light to illuminate the crimson-colored fur of the aggressor. It was a fact that he had somehow kept secret from everyone so far that the once again lost echidna had almost no internal sense of direction at all. The only reason it hadn't been discovered by now was probably because he spent so much time away from everyone while guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island, and Knuckles had made it a point long ago to memorize every square inch of the floating island as part of his job. However, lost in a strange forest as he found himself now, the red echidna didn't have the slightest clue as to where to go to escape the woody maze.

Figuring that the best idea would be to simply go forward in only one direction until he found an exit, Knuckles continued his trek through the woods. _Note to self, _he thought, _Next time you decide to go hiking just for the fun of it, do it in the forest on Angel Island!_ Hands tightened into fists at the stupidity of his current situation, Knuckles trudged on with his teeth barred to suppress his low growl. At long last he came across a portion of the woods in which the trees thinned out and the overgrown canopy opened up to the sunlight.

_Ha! See, I knew I'd find my way out of there, _Knuckles congratulated himself at solving the forests' maze. Happily strolling through the thinning trees to the unclearly defined edge of the forest, Knuckles quickly spotted something weird about the underbrush ahead. _That's strange,_ the red echidna mused as he knelt down to observe the disturbed ground beneath him, _Why is all the grass pointed that way?_

Indeed the ground at the bewildered echidna's feet showed a noticeable difference to that of the surrounding area. Looking closely towards the center of the wind-swept grass, Knuckles was able to barely make out the conspicuous marks of footprints on the ground. _Oh, of course! Sonic must have come through here recently on one of his runs! Even I'm smart enough to figure that one out!_ Knuckles triumphantly solved the riddle. Taking a look up the wide path of disturbance, however, he also had another thought. _Dang! He must have been traveling super __fast to cause this big a trail! Or maybe Tails was with him? Ah well, either way I should probably go say hi while I'm at it._

Knuckles followed the easily distinguished trail for several minutes as he let his anger from earlier dissipate completely in the warmth of the sunny day. Rounding the crest of a small hill, Knuckles spotted something lying on the path in front of him that stuck out in contrast to its surroundings by its yellow and white color. Intrigued by the strange sighting, he quickly walked up to the object and lifted it into his hands. Getting a good long look at the horribly constructed toy in his palms, Knuckles started laughing so hard he fell to the ground in pain.

"Oh man! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Knuckles hollered at the top of his lungs since he was confident he was alone, "Tails made a little dolly of himself, and he's carrying it around with him, too! Ha ha ha ha ha…!" The red echidna continued his laughter until the humorous revelation started to lose its appeal. "I guess I'd better get this ugly thing back to Tails, though. I certainly wouldn't want to have him cry over losing his little doll!" Knuckles decided to do the right thing and return the lost toy, if maybe for the wrong reasons.

"Cruelty, very nice! I like that feeling, too!" a voice reached Knuckles ear from seemingly nowhere.

"Wha…! Hey! Who's out there, huh?! Come on, show yourself to me, you little punk!" Knuckles angrily shouted into the surrounding scattered trees. He was unnerved that someone had overheard him talking to himself, especially since he never really meant a word he had just said. Eyes frantically scanning the area around him, Knuckles became worried as he realized that there was no really good cover here that someone could hide behind to avoid his gaze, so he should have been able to locate whoever was watching him easily. Knuckles decided to try and lure the foe out of hiding with a challenge, "I dare you to speak up again, buddy! Come on, just one word!"

Silence followed his dare until the red echidna heard a voice call out to him again from what seemed to be every direction at once, "Very well then, Hi." The voice was young and high pitched, but sounded almost cold. Knuckles shook off the sensation as he again scanned the sparsely wooded area around him. "Hmmm hm hm ha ha ha ha! For someone so strong, you certainly are dumb!" the childish voice rang out again, this time clearly right in front of the confused echidna.

"Hey! I'm through playing games with yo…" Knuckles cut off his sentence mid-word as he snapped his eyes forward to find his mysterious stalker. His hands dropped their fighting stance as he saw the form of the strange Tails'-shaped doll levitating on its own before him. "No way! You can't be serious! You're a doll, which means you can't talk, or even fly for that matter!" the startled echidna shouted in surprise.

"He he he he he heeeee! And you're just a big red idiot that can't even move!" the voice continued to come from the floating doll, even though its horribly stitched-on face never moved so much as a thread.

"What do you mean by that, ugly?!" Knuckles shouted in rage as he tried to raise a fist to smash the levitating plush doll. To his surprise, however, Knuckles found that he couldn't move a single muscle in any of his limbs, which felt like they were being restrained by heavy rocks. "Unnngg! Urrrff! Hey, let me go, you gravity defying Teletubby!" the slightly alarmed echidna yelled as he struggled against the invisible force that kept him pinned down.

"Ahh, yes… Now that's more like it. The ones who don't scare easily give out such powerful fear," the hovering doll continued its unknown mode of communication with the frightened echidna.

"Fear, you?! Hah! I'd be more afraid of seeing Eggman dancing to Swan Lake in a pink dress than you any day!" Knuckles defiantly shouted back at his assailant.

"Tch, such great potential for fear, but ruined by an overly stuffed ego," the doll continued on undaunted. "I suppose that since you are not going to amuse me with the pleasure of seeing you cower like the animal you are, then you are of little more use to me. A shame really, your soul is not the one I seek, but I think that I can still use you to get it for me, as my puppet!" At the last words of the sentence, Knuckles visibly cringed as the evil, childish voice deformed instantly into a demented, impossibly low roar. "Knuckles the echidna," the unbelievably low and evil sounding voice called out, "Can you feel the sunshine?"

Shaken momentarily by the voice that seemed to be the pure essence of evil, Knuckles quickly regained his composure at the odd question. "What is that supposed to mean, you freak?! Of course I can… feel… it… urk," the crimson echidna managed to say before he found himself unable to speak anymore. In his mind, Knuckles fought to keep control over his rapidly weakening body as he managed one final thought, _I knew I never should have… left Angel Island… to-today! _The very last sight Knuckles' frightened eyes focused on was the strange gem attached to the doll's head glowing brightly as his own energy was absorbed by the demonic creature. Losing the last of his strength in the matter of seconds, Knuckles' lifeless body collapsed to the forest floor.

"Oh, such decadent taste, the soul of a fool!" the Tails Doll spoke to itself in its childish voice again as it hovered over the corpse of the red echidna. "Yes, his death is tragic, but he shall prove most useful for instilling fear in the one being that truly interests me. After all, it doesn't matter if one wins or loses, all that matters is how you played the game. And since I can't possibly lose, I might as well scare the soul out of my sissy counterpart before I steal it!" the strange doll gave its unsettling yet juvenile laugh. After savoring its sinister monologue and supposed snack, the evil incarnate doll again brought itself back to its ultimate goal. Following the trail that Sonic and Tails had made earlier through the light woods, it made sure to get as far away from the dead body of Knuckles as possible before its 'original' came looking for it again. The Tails Doll continued on to a reasonable spot for it to have been 'dropped' and settled to the ground in anticipation of his true target's return, unaware that another set of eyes had observed its earlier meal in the forest and were now dashing away to inform the one person who could help.

* * *

Tails woke up almost half an hour later to the vision of a clear blue sky with small, puffy, white clouds floating calmly in the open airspace. _Man, it's days like these that I really want to just get in the Tornado and do nothing but fly around all day,_ Tails said as he lazily watched the sky above. Noting the position of the sun, however, Tails finally realized that he must have dozed off since it was now nearing noontime. Rolling over, he found Sonic still lying comfortably in the grass next to him.

Sensing the moment of opportunity with a twinkle in his large, blue eyes, Tails slowly moved his body to get in a crouching position to pounce on the sleeping hedgehog. Counting to three in his mind while a huge, uncontrollable grin spread across his face, Tails leaped at the unsuspecting Sonic, intending to land on him with an unexpected tickle attack. No sooner had he begun to fall towards the reclining blue hedgehog, however, then Sonic's large green eyes shot open while simultaneously accompanied by a huge grin of his own. Effortlessly, Sonic disappeared out from on top of Tails' landing site, leaving the fox to hit only the ground he had been laying on less than a second ago.

"Umph! Hey, no fair, Sonic! You were supposed to be asleep!" Tails shouted as he hit the grassy spot Sonic had been laying on moments ago.

"Oh, I get it! Jumpin' on someone just because ya think they're sleepin' and won't notice is fair too, right?" Sonic countered while he grinned and crossed his arms standing a foot away from the fox that hadn't gotten back up yet. Sonic's sarcastic voice and body language told Tails that his older brother was just giving him a hard time and wasn't really angry at the surprise attack as the fox laughed at the statement. "Well, only one punishment I know of that's serious enough for someone who tries a sneak attack on me!" Sonic spoke as his grin grew even wider.

"Oh no! Not that! Anything but that!" Tails yelled in mock horror as he turned to run off before being tackled to the ground by the impossibly fast hedgehog.

"Oh yes, that, Tails! Time to see if my fingers are as fast as my feet!" Sonic threatened as he started tickling the pinned down fox right in the center of his white-furred belly.

Tails' smile grew across his whole face at the sensation, but he managed to keep his mouth shut to prevent the hedgehog the satisfaction of hearing his laughter at the strange torture. His large blue eyes glimmered playfully as he stared down his harmless assailant.

"Oh, so you aren't feelin' ticklish today, eh, bro? Well, I just happen to know a few spots that are guaranteed to work, like… here!" Sonic shouted out as he suddenly rolled the fox over and began tickling up and down the young kit's spine, particularly the more sensitive area around his double tails as well.

Tails held his breath as he strained with all his might to endure the tickling without laughing. His face almost started turning purple at the strain as he realized that in less than one second more, Sonic would win this little test of endurance. Just before he could hold it no more, Tails quickly spun his twin appendages behind him to entangle the blue hedgehog's hands.

"Ha! Quick save, bro!" Sonic light-heartedly remarked as he worked to free his hands from Tails' unexpectedly strong gripping tails. "Yeah, that was the spot all right, but you won't let me near there anymore, now, will ya, buddy?" Sonic realized as he laughed a bit himself while he finally pulled his arms free from Tails twin hairy appendages. "I guess that this calls for me to use your super secret ticklish spot then, doesn't it, Tails?" the blue hedgehog ominously threatened one last time.

"Yeah, right! You don't know my secret ticklish spot! You're just bluffing!" Tails taunted the amused hedgehog. He never understood why he said that however, because he knew full well that Sonic most certainly DID know the one part of his body that was the most susceptible to his finger torture and now, thanks to his big mouth, that Sonic would waste no time in proving it.

"Oh, really?" Sonic playfully bantered right back at Tails' critical mistake. "It wouldn't happen ta' be right… there, would it?" he laughed as he ran a single finger along the edge and base of Tails' large, triangular left ear.

Tails' face scrunched up like he had eaten a whole lemon in a single bite as the fox fought his hardest to keep his composure, but it was a futile effort. The area around and on his sensitive ears was at least ten times more ticklish than any other spot on the fox's body, and Tails only lasted two full seconds before Sonic had him rolling around on the ground in uncontrollable laughter. The blue hedgehog managed to continue torturing both of Tails' ears even with the kit's constant attempts to swat the oppressive hands away. Tails kept laughing until he cried and his sides hurt so bad he almost felt sick. Still, Sonic, laughing almost as hard as the squirming kit, kept on tickling until Tails finally used the very last of his air in his seriously oxygen depraved lungs to shout the magic words, "Ha ha ha ha…! Uncle! Uncle! Ha ha ha! I give up, Sonic! Stop it! Ha ha ha ha ha…!"

Sonic quickly stopped his extreme tickle torture as he watched Tails slowly caught his breath again between lingering spasms of laughter that still endured. "Well, little bro, learned your lesson?" Sonic teased.

"Ha ha ha! Sure, Sonic. I'm just glad I used the bathroom before we came out here," Tails added after making a mental note not to goad Sonic into doing that again unless he was sure his bladder was empty like it had been thankfully a second ago. Now wide awake and good humored, the fox looked to the blue hedgehog to see what the next move would be for the day. Just then, he noticed something that he couldn't believe had gone unnoticed this long. Searching the entire hilltop with his eyes, Tails caught no sight of the ugly doll of himself that he had taken along with him on his run with Sonic earlier. "Oh No! Sonic, have you seen that creepy doll of me anywhere? I think I might have dropped it during our run and forgot about it!" Tails worriedly exclaimed.

"So, what's the big deal, bro?" Sonic unsympathetically responded. "I thought you'd be glad to lose that stupid thing!"

"Well, I am sort of glad, I suppose, but what if someone else finds it?" Tails asked.

"Then it's their problem now," Sonic gave the quick and simple answer.

"Yeah, but, they will probably think that I made it and that it's my little dolly or something that I carry around now!" Tails objected. "Anyone who finds it would probably laugh at me forever!"

"Well, that's kinda why I told you to leave it at home earlier, little bro!" Sonic reminded Tails of his earlier advice. He could see though, that just telling Tails what he should have done wasn't enough to alleviate the young fox's fears, so he decided to compromise, "OK, if it means that much to ya, little bro, we'll go back and find it on our way home for some grub." Tails nodded his head in approval as they both dashed away at a fraction of the speed they had clocked in as earlier since they needed to search the ground as they went this time.

They didn't have to travel much more than halfway back before they both saw the poorly constructed doll lying face down in the dirt directly on their previously traveled path from earlier. Tails quickly stopped and retrieved the accidentally discarded toy from the ground, casting a quick glance at it to check that its already loose stitching hadn't completely fallen apart from its fall during his high-speed chase of the blue hedgehog earlier. Tails caught himself wondering why he suddenly felt relieved that the grotesque puppet hadn't been damaged or lost as Sonic walked up alongside him impatiently.

"OK, bro, I think we found it. Now can we go get us a bite to eat?" Sonic spoke up while he tapped his foot impatiently. A barely audible rumble also came from the blue hedgehog's stomach in response to his last sentence. Clearly the time-expansive search at a relatively slow speed had begun to wear on the good tempered hedgehog who just wanted to beat it to the nearest kitchen after having his breakfast interrupted earlier that morning.

"Sure, Sonic," Tails quickly answered after sensing his brother's obvious impatience. "Let's go back to my place. I got some fresh chili sauce and more hot dogs when we went to the store yesterday."

"Now you're talkin', bro!" Sonic exclaimed. He couldn't care how often he had his favorite snack; chili dogs never lost their appeal on the light-speed hero. He quickly turned and resumed following the windswept trail back to Tails' house from earlier at a much more enjoyable speed. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure Tails was following him, Sonic was shocked not to see his buddy racing next to him like before. Grabbing the trunk of a slender tree as he passed by, Sonic slingshotted his body in a rapid 180 degree turn without missing a single step and raced back the way he came to check on his missing brother. Upon the hedgehog's quick return, Sonic found Tails still standing on the exact spot he had left him a second ago. Something was definitely wrong, however, because the yellow fox was clutching his white furred belly in a tight embrace with both hands as his face was etched with the signs of an intense pain. "Tails! What's wrong, bro?!" Sonic anxiously yelled as he ran up to his clearly suffering brother.

"I… I don't know, Sonic," Tails managed to say through gritted teeth against the unexplainable pain in his chest. "I started to follow you that way back to my house, but then I got this sharp pain in my gut and couldn't move! Aaaaahhhh! It hurts so much, Sonic! Please, do something!" the suffering fox shouted as he fell to his knees at the strange and overbearing pain.

"I don't know what TO do, bro!" Sonic worriedly informed his grimacing brother. Seeing Tails in pain like that and not having a clue what to do was starting to make Sonic go slightly hysterical until he remembered that a calm mind was needed in an emergency situation like this. He tried to block out the image of his younger brother writhing in pain on the ground beneath him as he searched for his best course of action. Seeing a small series of smoke puffs in the distance over some nearby hills, Sonic suddenly realized where they were at the moment and thanked Mobius for his good fortune. "Hang on, little bro! I'm gonna take ya to someone who can help!" Sonic shouted as he picked up the pain-stricken fox in his arms and dashed towards the smoke on the horizon that was coming from a home he knew very well. Focusing his eyes more on Tails than the road ahead of him as he ran, Sonic briefly noticed that Tails had somehow managed to hold on to his strange look-a-like doll as the fox still clutched his chest in pain. He poured on the speed as he caught a quick glimpse of the hut he was aiming for over a few more hills ahead of him.


	5. Chapter 5: Sniper!

Things Best Forgotten

Hello, everyone! Wow, I think that this is the longest time I have ever gone without a post, a whole two weeks! I'm very sorry to all of you who are used to my rapid posting from earlier, but college and sickness have recently conspired together to silence my creative fingers. Never fear, though, because I'm back now for at least this weekend, and I'm feeling like writting, a lot! Just a quick FYI as well; I have recently done a lot of work on my profile on this site, so please check it out to see what's new or just to laugh at some of the things I put on there. Thanks!

Even more thanks go to my reveiwers, however: Insertnamehere (very original, by the way!), Kitsune Disciple, Kitsune-SuperFox, peterskywalker, Sacredfire059, Double Dee Dee, cari la fenix, Rae Logan, Eggthrax (aka Drandu), Shika Kev Prower, Asher Tye, Koike, Super Dragon, Howtheheckshouldiknow (VERY original!), tailsfan007, brave kid, and, last but certainly not least, Zachary W! Thought I would forget to list you reviewers because it's been so long, didn't you? Ha, ha! Not a chance! Also, huge thanks to Toko the Pikmin master (who didn't review last chapter for some unknown reason...), Shika Kev Prower, Zachary W, and Asher Tye for still keeping in touch with me from time to time during my recent drought of postings. Also, anyone who loved the Sonic/Tails brotherly moments from last chapter should rejoice and check out Zachary W's great picture he made for me of a cute scene in Chapter 4! (At the time that I posted this chapter, it was his current avatar, but it looks better on his DeviantArt account anyway.) I always love people who do things based off my work, and I greatly encourage anyone to contact me if they have an idea for a story or drawing concerning my fanfics! Now, enough of me blabbing; you folks wanted a story! Well, here it is! Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Sniper?!

The peaceful, beautiful spring day was the perfect weather for the occupants of the small, two-story, domed hut. The only current resident inside at the moment, however, refused to give in to the temptation to escape to the pristine rolling hills surrounding her shared humble cottage. Currently, the sole home's occupant was busy with one of her favorite activities anyway, baking her delicious and much renowned homemade pies. She set her newest creation, a steaming hot and perfectly formed cherry pie, on the open windowsill with the company of an apple and a blueberry version that had already been placed there as well to cool in the crisp early afternoon breeze.

She sighed contently as the figure in the kitchen removed her always spotless cooking apron and started to clean up after the completion of her morning spent cooking the trio of delicious desserts. Despite the wonderful day outside, the elderly, but by no means old, chef still preferred to spend her time in her beloved kitchen, but, with her pleasant job no longer an excuse, as all that was needed now was time for the delicious pies to cool before eating, the female rabbit again entertained the idea of sneaking out to see what her daughter was up to. Cream had taken Cheese out with her on the gorgeous spring day for the twosome's favorite activity, to collect the prettiest flowers from the surrounding fields of wildflowers for use in making flower crowns for everyone she knew.

Vanilla smiled as she continued putting away the unused ingredients from earlier. She never worried about Cream when she went out on her own with Cheese around the grassy hills and fields surrounding the rabbit family's quiet home. Nothing even remotely dangerous happened around here anyways, at least not anything that Sonic couldn't miraculously show up and handle. Almost as if on cue as she started washing the dirty mixing bowls and utensils, a series of loud knocks was heard rapping furiously on the only door to the rabbit's humble abode. Seconds later, a loud boom was heard as the noise from the visitor's sudden approach finally caught up to the mysterious caller at the door.

The loud concussion of the sonic boom caused Vanilla to accidentally drop a china plate that she was currently washing into the sink, breaking the delicate kitchenware into several large pieces. Hardly noticing the accidentally shattered plate, the surprised mother hare quickly strode over to the pounding door in a few hurried steps. She knew from the incredible noise a second ago who her unexpected caller was, but why Sonic would be in such a hurry and knocking so hard on her front door got her motherly instincts tingling with that unwelcome sense of unease that all parents dread more than anything. Flinging the wooden door wide open, Vanilla felt more than she saw her visitor as a blue wind rushed into the center of the spacious living room and stopped at the large sofa towards the center of the sparsely decorated room. Vanilla let the door hit the wall and close again on its own as she rushed over the yellow figure the blue hedgehog had deposited on the three-seated couch.

"Mrs. Vanilla! Ya gotta help! My bro, he's hurtin' pretty bad! I'm not sure what happened to him but we were just out for a run and…" Sonic began talking frantically in a speed that only his feet could possibly match.

"Please, Sonic!" Vanilla spoke up as she placed a hand on the frantic hedgehog's shoulder to calm him down from his current frenzy, "You need to calm down and tell me what happened slowly, so I can help." The crazed hedgehog stared at the passive adult in amazement as he realized his frenzied explanation would be of little help to the suffering fox. Calm nerves were what this situation called for, and luckily Vanilla had plenty of years over the panicked Sonic which had taught her this lesson well. She averted her attention to Tails who was lying on the large sofa with his hands clamped over his white furred chest and his face scrunched up in the unmistakable sign of pain.

Tails noticed the silence following Vanilla's short speech and watched as the adult rabbit began to check him over with her eyes. He kept his hands clamped securely around his abdomen as his pain continued, but already the mysterious injury was starting to hurt less than earlier. "I don't know what happened, Mrs. Vanilla," Tails finally spoke before Sonic could restart his explanation. "I was just about to follow Sonic into the forest we ran through earlier today when I suddenly got this pain that felt like someone was stabbing me in the chest. I couldn't move, it hurt so bad, but Sonic brought me here 'cause we thought that you could probably help."

"I'm afraid I can't do anything for you until I know what's wrong with you, sweetie," Vanilla quickly replied. Tails' still pained expression showed a small amount of disappointment now, as well. Vanilla knew that she shouldn't get the fox's hopes up that she could find out what was wrong with him by guessing. She was an excellent nurse for colds, bruises, and even more serious injuries like broken bones, but, when it came to internal pains and injuries, Vanilla understood completely that those were out of her league and best left to real doctors. Even so, she wouldn't just watch Tails suffer wincing in pain on her sofa either. The motherly rabbit sighed as she decided against her better judgment to inspect Tails anyway. "I could try to see if it's anything I know how to treat, but I won't make any promises," Vanilla set the terms of her amateur checkup. "Now, let's see what's under your arms there, Tails."

"What for?" Tails asked as he looked up at the helpful mother in curiosity. He didn't particularly want to remove his hands from his still rather pained chest because they provided a good deal of comfort to his aching belly, as well as hide a certain item that he wasn't sure he wanted to show Vanilla yet either.

"Maybe something small but very fast hit you and got under your skin, so you didn't notice," Vanilla calmly explained. "I just want to check for any blood or small cuts that could mean you were hurt by something."

"Hang on there, Mrs. V! What do you mean somethin' small that got into Tails' skin? Like a bullet?!" Sonic suddenly screamed as if he was an overly protective and easily worried parent.

"No, honey, I never said tha…" Vanilla tried to calm down the frantic hedgehog, only to find that the misconception was spreading faster than she could silence it.

"You think I've been shot?!" Tails cried out in horror as he clutched his chest even tighter, now fully intending to never remove his hands lest they be stained with blood.

"No, sweetie, but I can't be sure until you let me che…" Vanilla called out as she was interrupted by another frantic outburst from Sonic.

"It must have happen right as I ran off! Someone in the woods probably had a gun aimed right at me, but when I left they fired and got my little bro instead! Oh, Tails, bro! Can you ever forgive me?! How could I have known?!" Sonic began speculating widely as he rushed over to hug Tails, undoubtedly thinking that the kitsune had been mortally wounded.

"Sonic, I think that you're getting a little ahe…" Vanilla still attempted to end the paranoia she had unintentionally started.

"It's OK, Sonic. I forgive you. It really doesn't hurt that bad now, anyways," Tails answered as he got caught up in the hedgehog's frenzied grief.

"Don't say that, bro! That's not a good sign after being shot! I need to get you to a hospital right away!" Sonic said as he started to lift the yellow kit off the couch again.

"Wait! I…" the oldest and most sensible person in the room again interjected, only this time to be cut off by a new voice belonging to someone who was coming back at a very unfortunate time.

"Hospital?! Why does Tails need to go to the hospital?!" Cream suddenly shouted as she stood in the doorway to the madhouse.

"Chao?!" Cheese also asked in its own language.

"I'm not sure if he does, hon…" Vanilla tried to reason with her daughter before the panic spread, but Sonic proved to have the faster mouth in the end.

"It was Eggman; I know it!" the blue hedgehog shouted out his newest reincarnation of Tails' still undiagnosed injury. "He must have got Tails with a sniper-bot or somethin' at the exact moment I left him! I think I even felt the bullet as I took off! Actually, yeah, I did! It went right by me so close I could almost feel it!" Sonic continued to develop his already dramatic and much exaggerated story in his blind, worried frenzy.

"Sonic! Don't you see that you're making all of this u…" Vanilla almost managed to finish her sentence before the overreacting duo became a trio, or quartet, depending on if a chao counts as well.

"Wait, are you saying Tails got shot?!" Cream squealed in horror, her already impossibly high voice reaching notes that might be out of the human hearing range. The large basket of freshly picked flowers she had just returned with fell gracefully from her hand and littered the doorway with the beautiful wildflowers. Cheese, equally horrified, began shouting out its only, one-word sentence as it yanked on one of Tails' large ears in an effort to force the fox to hang on to life and not give up.

"Now this is just getting silly!" Vanilla commented loudly from the center of the living room between the worried hedgehog holding the crying fox and her daughter who had collapsed in tears as well in the flower-ridden doorway to her normally peaceful home.

"Will Tails die?!" Cream ignored her mother and approached Sonic who was cradling Tails gingerly by now.

"No, I'm sure Tails is…" Cream's mother attempted to comfort her younger charge, only to find that Sonic seemed the only 'credible' source of news in the room.

"I think so, Cream," Sonic said quietly with a tear in his eye. "He already said he can't feel much, anymore. It's probably too late now." The hedgehog started rocking Tails in his arms as if comforting the fox in his final moments like he used to calm Tails down when he was still very little.

"Now you see he…" Vanilla spoke as she got less and less words in edgewise every time.

"Sonic, I think I can see it! I can see heaven!" Tails blurted loudly as he fully believed every word Sonic had said and now started to imagine that he really was dying.

"Tails, I don't really thi…" the grown up rabbit spoke up, clearly annoyed at the mass hysteria run amok in her orderly home.

"It will be, OK, little bro. I'll never forget you," Sonic passionately addressed his 'dying' partner.

"But…!" Vanilla barely managed to get in.

"Why Tails?! Why did he have to go?!" Cream screamed through her sobs and torrential tears.

"Chao?! Chao, Chao?!" Cheese also lamented as it gripped Tails' triple bangs on the fox's forehead so hard he almost pulled some of the long hairs out entirely.

"I…!" Vanilla only uttered the single syllable before again getting interrupted by the ridiculous charade.

"Good… bye, Sonic," Tails weakly spoke as if they were the last words he would ever say.

"I love ya, little bro! (sniff) Goodbye," Sonic barely managed to respond as his voice disappeared in his own sobs of grief.

Vanilla had had enough. It was one thing for Sonic to misunderstand what she had meant to say, but for all three, or four, of the other people present in the room to be so hysterical about a simple chest pain and throwing her well run home into total bedlam was inexcusable. "Everyone BE QUIET!!" Vanilla finally lost her almost inexhaustible patience as she shouted in a volume that only Cream had ever heard before when she was in the worst trouble.

In the aftermath of the yell from the reserved and normally perfectly self-controlled mother, all noise in the house ceased entirely. Even the soft sounds from the area immediately surrounding the house stopped as the insects themselves froze at the never before witnessed rage of the most passive being on Mobius. Vanilla stood glaring at the small group in front of her as her hands slowly unknotted from their tight fists, and the blood finally stopped rushing into her head and returned to the parts of her body where it belonged. For a moment, all the hairs on the motherly rabbit had stood straight on end as the perfect mother had somehow transformed into the scariest being on Mobius or any other planet, but a brief minute of pure silence later and Vanilla once again became the harmless and caring mother she always was and would be.

Vanilla felt the force of her anger leave her as she became aware of the four sets of eyes now staring at her in pure disbelief and… fear? The adult rabbit didn't understand why anyone would be threatened by her as she somehow didn't register her emotional snap a second ago. Looking at her hands, she noticed that her fists had been so tight that her fingers had left small bruises on her palms. Stunned at the sight of her hands and finally remembering her outburst a short minute past, Vanilla collapsed slowly into a nearby armchair as Cream finally worked up the courage to move closer to check on her uncharacteristically acting mother.

"Mommy?" Cream softly greeted Vanilla in a voice that still trembled from fear at the almost literal transformation her mother had made earlier from the chaotic situation. Cheese tried to be brave as well and approach with Cream, but the little chao noticeably hovered behind the young bunny's head and completely out of sight unless from behind, just for safety.

"Cream, sweetie, I'm so very sorry," Vanilla replied in a tone that almost brought fresh tears back to everyone's eyes. "I… I just don't know what came over me."

"Man, and I thought I was gonna take Tails' death hard," Sonic half-mumbled as he still cradled the yellow fox, unsure if the unstable rabbit would take it as an insult instead of his sincere concern for her feelings.

"Sonic, honey, take a good look at Tails. Does he seem dead to you?" Vanilla quickly spoke up in a voice that still sounded slightly annoyed as she finally got the chance to snap the blue hedgehog back to reality.

"Well, no, actually," Sonic answered as he stared at Tails laying in his hands. The stunned young fox simply stared back with his blinking, large, blue eyes that still glowed with every bit of life that the kit had always possessed. "Uhhh… But, didn't ya say my bro was shot?" Sonic finally posed the question as his mind failed to grasp the point of Vanilla's test.

Tails was set down on the sofa again as he still gripped his chest tightly. The pain had all but stopped, but the two-tailed fox still wanted to keep his secret possession hidden from the two females in the room. He saw Vanilla shake her head in her hands as she gave up on convincing the hedgehog that Tails was probably just fine. Tails was also confused at the sudden change from him supposedly dying a minute ago to being perfectly fine now. He never really thought that he had been shot at all, but Sonic had been so sure that he went along with it the whole time.

"No, Sonic. I never even said that Tails had been shot at all!" Vanilla talked sense into the hedgehog that still refused to see past his own panicked lies.

"You didn't?" Cream asked in disbelief as the news started to soak into everyone's heads. She and Cheese had come in too late to hear the whole conversation, so they were naturally both more confused than ever now.

"No, sweetie. I only said that I wanted to check Tails just in case," Vanilla answered, now completely back to her usual self as she explained the tragic miscommunication to her daughter. "As a matter of fact, I still do," the motherly rabbit finished as she walked over to Tails sitting on the sofa with his hands still folded across his chest.

Tails noticed all eyes follow Vanilla towards him as he began sweating and glancing around quickly in nervousness at being the unwanted center of attention. "Ummm… I don't think you have to do that now, Mrs. Vanilla! The pain is actually gone now, seriously!" Tails tried to prevent moving his arms and revealing the poorly constructed doll of himself hidden underneath. But, as if the universe sought to conspire against him keeping his dignity, a sudden twinge of pain from his abdomen lasted long enough for him to flinch momentarily, a sight which was easily spotted by everyone in the room.

"Don't lie to us, bro! Hurry up and let's see! Maybe the bullet just grazed ya or somethin'," Sonic shouted at Tails in concern. The hedgehog's obsession over the non-existent sniper prevented him from remembering why Tails didn't want to reveal his chest to the two women.

"But… I…!" Tails tried to refuse as Sonic, Vanilla, Cream, and even Cheese gave him a long group stare. "OK…" He gave in using a very defeated tone. He yanked his arms off his white furred chest in the fastest motion he could and quickly held them, and the doll of himself with them, behind his back. Then, he prayed that the fast motion had kept the doll concealed as he had moved his hands.

Vanilla was surprised at the speed of Tails' oddly quick movement considering his refusal a second ago, but she didn't give it any more thought as she ran her fingers softly through Tails' white-furred belly. It must have tickled the fox slightly as Tails began chuckling softly during her detailed inspection. Finding absolutely nothing wrong with Tails on the outside, she turned to face Sonic and Cream who were holding their breath for news of how bad Tails had been shot.

"See, not a single scratch on him," Vanilla announced to the needlessly concerned occupants of the room.

Sonic, Tails, Cream, and Cheese all sweatdropped at the revelation. Vanilla had been right all along, and Sonic now realized how out of line he had gotten. He had even swore he felt the bullet that hit Tails graze him too, but now reality informed him that his fictitious bullet never existed at all. Worst of all, he had made Tails, Cream, and Cheese believe him and created a huge mess! Sonic found all eyes in the room turn on him as the super fast hedgehog wanted desperately to run away from the present group that only needed pitchforks and torches now to fully resemble an angry mob. Sonic decided to try and blow off the grave mistake he had made by changing the subject, "Uhhh… Hey, guys! If Tails wasn't shot, then what's up with that pain he had earlier?"

"Hey, Sonic's right! What about my pain? It's gone now, but I know it hurt really bad earlier," Tails bailed out his unbelievably embarrassed older brother by returning to the purpose of his and Sonic's unexpected visit. His pain was indeed completely gone now, but he knew that it had definitely been there a few minutes ago. Pain like that couldn't just be imagined.

"Well, have you used the bathroom recently? With as much as you eat, you could just be constipated," Vanilla ran through the likely suspects.

"No, that's not it. I took care of that just this morning before my run with Sonic," Tails refuted the incorrect prognosis.

"Momma, what's 'constipated'?" Cream answered in genuine curiosity.

"It's not something to talk about with company around, deary," Vanilla put the explanation on hold until later. "On your run with Sonic, did anything unusual happen?" she continued her interrogation.

"No, not really," Tails answered without even thinking.

"Not really?! Come on, bro! Ya kept up with me for almost ten whole minutes, and I was almost at top speed, too!" Sonic bragged on his little brother that had made him so proud earlier.

"Are you really that fast now, Tails?" Cream asked with a voice, not of disbelief, but rather encouragement and pride as well at the fox's achievement.

"Well… I guess so," Tails admitted while he placed his hand behind his head in his classic pose he always used when feeling uncomfortable at receiving praise. Unfortunately, this motion was not thought through by the young fox as it was a reflex by now, so as his hand came back to strike the familiar pose, the horribly stitched doll resembling himself fell from his upraised hand and into his lap in full view of everyone. Upon noticing his unintentional mistake, Tails began blushing even more profusely as Cream instantly bounded over to snatch up the revealed doll from his lap.

"Oh, mommy, look! Tails is learning to sow just like you are teaching me!" Cream said as she waved the doll in the air and finally handed it to Vanilla.

Cheese floated over to the strange creation and touched a small, stubby hand to the jewel attached to the head of the deceptively unresponsive puppet. Sensing something no one else could feel emanating from the crystal, Cheese instantly retreated behind Cream's shoulder in fright. "Chao! Chao, cha chao!" Cheese shouted in a tone that betrayed that the little chao didn't like the strange toy one bit.

"Don't be so rude, Cheese!" Cream misunderstood the little chao's warning, "Tails is just learning how to sow! He'll get better and make good looking dolls just like mommy does soon."

"Thanks, Cream, but I didn't actually make that thing," Tails found the courage to speak again after accidentally letting his secret out moments ago.

"Oh, so it was probably a gift someone gave you when you were little, then," Vanilla guessed as she looked over the poorly crafted stuffed animal with a critical eye.

"That's what we think it is, anyway," Tails answered, implying himself and Sonic.

"Well, sweetie, it doesn't look like this old thing will last much longer without some good patching at least. Would you like me to fix it up for you?" Vanilla offered as she still held the small, disfigured doll in her hands.

"Ummm… Well, I guess so... If it isn't any trouble, that is," Tails accepted the motherly rabbit's generosity. He wasn't sure if leaving the spooky toy with the bunny family was a good idea, but it only seemed to actually scare him and not anyone else. Plus, judging by her reaction to the doll already, there was probably no danger of it frightening Cream either. Besides, if it was all the way over here in Vanilla's care, it couldn't possibly follow him around his house anymore. Tails even hoped that maybe when Vanilla was done with it, it would look less hideous as well. He watched Vanilla set the ugly mannequin down on a basket filled with many different colored balls of yarn and a few crochet needles of assorted sizes.

"It's no trouble at all, honey," Vanilla assured the uncomfortable fox. The silence of the room following her last statement was then immediately broken by a loud rumble from both visitors' stomachs.

"Tails, was that your tummy?" Cream asked with a giggle in response to the obvious noise.

"Heh heh, yeah, but not just mine!" Tails responded as he became embarrassed yet again, although this time Sonic also shared in Tails' humiliation as both Mobians clutched their empty bellies with hungry expressions on their faces.

"Oh, where are my manners?! You two probably haven't had any lunch yet, have you?" Vanilla suddenly exclaimed as she saw the two guests almost in tandem put a hand to their stomachs.

"Well, that's where we were headin' before this problem with Tails got us sidetracked," Sonic confessed hungrily.

"Come on, you two. Cream and I haven't eaten yet either, so I'll just go and make enough for everyone," Vanilla offered as she returned to the kitchen before even waiting for their answer. As they entered and saw her preparing another pair of sandwiches besides the two already needed for Cream and herself, Vanilla suddenly remembered that she hadn't ever come up with a satisfactory conclusion as to Tails' earlier pain. "Oh, and Tails, sweetie," the concerned rabbit announced as she continued preparing the extra lunches, "I wouldn't worry too much about those pains of yours. You are a growing young boy, and sometimes pain is just a part of growing up. But, just in case, if it gets bad like that again, make sure to let me know, OK?"

"Sure thing, Mrs. Vanilla!" Tails gladly acknowledged his orders. Then his nose caught a very sweet smell wafting through the room from the open window. "Are those pies?!" Tails shouted, clearly excited at the delicious sweets cooling on the windowsill.

"Yep! Mommy said she was going to make pies today!" Cream confirmed the origin of the delicious pies. The young rabbit also sounded very excited to get her share of the coveted treat.

Sonic sat at the table with everyone else and tried to ignore the conversation and the tempting pies sitting across the room. He wanted to be the mature one of the group, especially after his huge blunder earlier with not keeping his emotions under control, so he wasn't going to ask for a slice of the heavenly and much-renowned pies unless they were offered to him. Still, despite his self-constraint to not comment on the presence of these delectable marvels of confectionery, Sonic sincerely hoped for Vanilla to offer him some of the pie as well.

All three younger Mobians need not be concerned, however, as Vanilla immediately understood the question on all of their minds. She returned to the table that was just big enough for four with the completed sandwiches in tow before announcing her intentions for the delicious pies. "OK, everyone, eat up! But, make sure to leave room for dessert!" she mentioned with a quick wink.

Sonic and Tails, driven both by their immense hungers and the promise of such a rare treat, had their sandwiches completely devoured by the time Vanilla and Cream were even half finished. Astounded at the true extent of her two guest's appetites, Vanilla immediately resolved to offer them both another sandwich before dispensing her promised desserts, in an effort to prevent her entire morning's labor from being consumed in one sitting by the ravenous brothers. Both Sonic and Tails gratefully accepted the second helpings and quickly finished off the other two sandwiches as Vanilla fetched the still steaming pies from the kitchen windowsill. She set all three on the small table as the irresistible aroma from the three different types of baked goodness made everyone's mouth water.

"I want blueberry!" Cream shouted excitedly as she watched her mother expertly cut the three pies into perfect slices.

"Now, Cream, Sonic and Tails are our guests, so don't you think that they should get the first choice?" Vanilla reminded the impatient bunny while giving her a look that couldn't be mistaken for anything else other than that her last question had only one correct answer, and Cream knew which one it was.

"OK, mommy," Cream wisely took the obvious hint, although the young bunny's face still betrayed that she found the current situation to be very unfair.

"I'll take cherry!" Tails excitedly announced as he was promptly awarded with a savory slice of the juicy, red, overstuffed pie that had been the last one for Vanilla to finish earlier.

"And how about you, Sonic?" Vanilla asked as she delivered the first slice to Tails on a clean plate.

"Well, I guess I'll try some of that apple," Sonic decided as he pointed to the pie closest to him that smelled the best to the blue hedgehog.

No sooner had Vanilla served Sonic as well, then Cream had interjected yet again for her share of the heavenly desserts, "Now can I have some of the blueberry pie, momma?"

"Of course, Cream," Vanilla smiled widely at her daughter's manners. She could tell the young bunny had no real intentions of being patient had her mother not forced her to let the guests choose first, but Cream had still obeyed very quickly at her mom's prompting and deserved a reward for that at the least. Vanilla watched as Cream received her slice of dessert and proceeded to mimic Sonic and Tails in hungrily shoveling the culinary delight into her mouth at a very unrefined rate. Vanilla realized that the three hungry mouths around her would easily consume most, if not all, of the pies laid out on the table before them, so she wisely served a slice of her personal favorite flavor to herself before it could be completely devoured.

After everyone finally gorged themselves on the delicious pies, Sonic and Tails casually thanked Vanilla for her help and generosity. Sonic personally apologized for his overreaction earlier, to which Vanilla dismissed the event entirely as it being wonderful that he cared for his little brother so much in the first place. Cream personally promised Tails that she would help make sure that his doll was stitched up properly and returned to him quickly.

This made Tails steal a quick glance to the doll that was made in his image that was thankfully still sitting on the balls of yarn near Vanilla's favorite armchair. Tails could have swore that it must have turned around to watch him as he left via the front door, but he decided that bringing up that fact would only cause the current people present to think he really did need medical help. As he and Sonic began their uneventful dash back to Tails' home a good ways off, the young fox couldn't help but fight an irrational feeling in his gut that he had somehow put the two innocent rabbits in some kind of grave danger. Dismissing the foolish notion, he poured on more speed to both catch up to the speeding Sonic and outrace his own silly fears over an inanimate doll that would probably be returned to him without a hint of anything sinister about it once Vanilla's expert hands had worked their motherly magic.


	6. Chapter 6: Ya Got the Wrong Guy!

Things Best Forgotten

Dis-claimer, Dat-claimer, whatever!  I don't own Squat!  Yes, that's right, this little puppy named Squat that keeps following me around is not mine! XD  Yeah, but I also don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or anything related, either.

Back at long last and just in time for the Ghoul-idays, it's the TAILS DOLL!! (evil laugh)  I'm finding it harder and harder to write recently, but I made this chapter extra long to make up for the tardy posting.  (Actually, not really.  It would have been this long anyways, but I just needed a good excuse! XD)  Also, since I'm not entirely certain that I've made it clear at the beginning of this story, this whole event is supposed to take place in the pre-Sonic X Mobius just weeks before Chaos Control brought them all to Earth.  Yes, I did reference Ella in chapter 1 for all you smarty-pants readers that will undoubtedly bring that to my attention, but it was a mistake and I'm just too lazy to go back and change it now.  There may be a few more discrepancies in the future as well, but I'll be watching out for them so hopefully nothing like that will happen again.

Reviewer Role Call Time!  Thanks to JOSH, peterskywalker, tails blackheart, Danielle, tailsfan007 (which, by the way, I hate coffee and would never drink the stuff.  I get my morning Joe from Pepsi!), Double Dee Dee, Pokelad, Asher Tye, Zachary W, Rae Logan, Koike, Shika Kev Prower, and brave kid!  I hope all of you guys have stuck it out with me and will continue to read and review my stories!  Now that I've almost beaten Sonic Chronicles, I'll probably go back to devoting all my free time to writting again, so expect more soon!  But for now, enjoy this 10,000+ word chapter!

Chapter 6: Ya Got the Wrong Guy, I Swear!

The rest of that afternoon passed uneventfully for Sonic and Tails. Upon returning safely to Tails' Workshop on the cliff face of the Mystic Ruins, both creatures went to doing whatever they pleased for the rest of the day. Sonic sat down in the living room and found something interesting on the TV. It sounded like some sort of old, black-and-white, under-budgeted horror movie, the kinds that have the paper ghosts flying around the actors while the leading woman screams as loud as she can at the horribly rendered apparitions. Actually, a scene almost exactly akin to the one now described must have just occurred, since Tails suddenly heard a loud, ear-piercing, feminine scream from the floor directly above him, immediately conjoined with the equally loud sound of Sonic laughing his hardest at the horrible acting and special effects. Tails could tell that Sonic was having fun watching the horrifically bad horror flick, but he immediately dismissed his idea to go back up to the living room and join in the film's ridicule.

Of course, the only reason that the first floor of his home was actually above him at the moment was because Tails was now in his personal hangar carved into the hillside below his house. This subterranean garage was easily the size of Tails' entire home as could be seen from the surface, and the yellow fox spent a great deal of his time down here as opposed to the building above. Sitting in the center of the cavernous and relatively barren room was Tails' pride and joy, the Tornado. The biplane, originally owned by Sonic before the hedgehog met the young mechanical genius, had been built and rebuilt countless times by the meticulous fox over the years and still had yet to fail the unforgiving pilot in his countless aerial sorties against Eggman's flying fortresses. A stunning record for both plane and pilot considering that each of the Doctor's impossibly huge aircrafts had always possessed enough firepower to demolish an entire nation's Air Force rather handily. However, the yellow vulpine wasn't currently in the middle of his typical maintenance work on the ageing biplane at the moment as Tails now shifted his attention back from Sonic's antics upstairs to the detailed schematic diagram on his workbench in front of him.

Though the fox was sorry to admit it for sentimental reasons, he knew that the golden ages for the blue and yellow biplane had come and gone as the mechanical design prodigy found himself now fixing more components on the aging Tornado than he ended up installing newer, better ones. That's why the two-tailed fox was currently bent over a large sheet of paper and scribbling furiously with both his pencil tip and eraser ending as he worked on a brand new design for an improved plane to serve as the workhorse against Eggman's also ever improving designs. He couldn't wait to show it to Sonic once the designs were complete. This new aircraft would put the tried and true Tornado to shame. Most importantly, it was a jet now with two impossibly large engines at the rear capable of accelerating the new, improved fighter plane to ludicrous speeds in seconds flat, something that Tails knew Sonic would enjoy immensely. The wings of the craft could fold over for easier storage, but, when fully deployed, would distinguish the plane from any other fighter in existence by the 'X'-like shape they presented from a head-on observer. It was by far the most ambitious project Tails had ever undertaken, but the fox was absolutely determined to produce the craft someday. He smiled as he thought about the look on Eggman's face when his new fighter took to the skies for the first time to fight him yet again.

Apparently, the pleasant daydream of his beloved new X-Tornado single-handedly ripping Eggman's robotic army to shreds was actually more of a real dream as Tails suddenly felt a gloved hand grasp him firmly on the shoulder, waking the dozing fox from his peaceful slumber with a start.

"Whoa, there, little buddy! Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya!" Sonic instantly spoke up in response to the fox's moment of surprise at the unexpected wakeup call. The blue hedgehog studied the yellow kit's face as Tails quickly recovered from his fright and realized that he had fallen asleep on his workbench desk.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Sonic. I just never remembered dozing off earlier," Tails spoke up as he yawned deeply while his two tails also punctuated the act by stretching out as far as they could directly behind the still drowsy fox. Tails took a glance at the large schematic clamped to the angled table in front of him and easily saw where his head had somehow come to rest during his impromptu nap by the small spots of drool that still soaked some of the paper's lower edge. "So, what time is it now, Sonic?" Tails asked in curiosity at how long he had been out.

"It's gettin' close to suppertime, bro," Sonic informed Tails. "You've only probably been in dreamland here for an hour or two, though," the hedgehog decided to save the yellow fox from having to do the math and figure this out for himself.

Tails with his impressively high IQ, however, had already done the math by the time Sonic even said this and instead stood up from his work stool to stretch the rest of his limbs from the stiffness of his unusual sleeping position as the hedgehog finished his sentence. "That's strange though, Sonic," the fox spoke as he turned to face his older brother who was simply standing in the same spot he had been a second ago when he woke the snoozing kitsune. "After sleeping in this morning and my nap on that hillside after our run today, I shouldn't have been tired at all."

Sonic simply shrugged his shoulders before deciding to also give a verbal response, "Don't know what ta tell ya, bro. Maybe that nightmare last night and your run with me today took more outta ya than you noticed?"

"I suppose so," Tails agreed with the reasonable hypothesis for his recent fatigue.

"So, I guess this is what you've been workin' on down here for the last couple of weeks now, ain't it?" Sonic mentioned as he pointed to the extremely technical diagrams on the large sheet of paper Tails had recently used as a pillow.

"Yep!" Tails immediately chimed in using a different, proud tone of voice. "The Tornado is getting kinda old and keeps taking longer and longer to fix after every time we crash it nowadays, so these are my plans for a brand new fighter jet that will be way better than the old biplane!"

"A fighter plane?!" Sonic spoke up as he stepped back on one foot in surprise at the radically different design as opposed to the usual modifications to the already tricked-out biplane. Then, a large smile spread across the blue hedgehog's face as he realized what a sleeker, jet-propelled plane would mean. "How fast?" Sonic asked while he crossed his arms in anticipation of a speed that would be less than impressive to the supersonic hedgehog.

"About what speed do you think we were going today on our run?" Tails shot back with another, seemingly unrelated question.

"I dunno, Tails! Remember, I'm not the smart one with numbers, bud, you are!" Sonic answered in slight aggravation at Tails asking him a question he knew that he couldn't answer.

"Compared to your top speed then, how fast were we going?" Tails pressed the question again.

"Well, I guess we were just about cruisin' in third gear for most of the trip, if you call my fastest gear five," Sonic finally did his best to answer the question. His curiosity over the importance of the seemingly trivial question caused the blue hedgehog to continue on, however, "I still don't get why…"

"With a chaos emerald to power it, the new X-Tornado can go double that," Tails interrupted Sonic's bewildered statement while a deliberate grin of pride and satisfaction spread across the fox's face as he gauged the hedgehog's reaction to the news.

"You're saying that this thing can even use a chaos emerald for power?!" Sonic shouted out in stunned amazement at what Tails had just confessed.

"When I'm done with it, sure!" Tails excitedly bragged to his flabbergasted brother. "And it will be just as fast as you if I can get it to work properly, too!" Tails' prideful grin now spread from ear-to-ear as he closed his large, blue eyes to allow the smile to grow even larger.

Sonic was genuinely surprised at this news and found himself unable to say anything in response except to let out a short, high pitched whistle that betrayed his disbelief of the sheer power this new plane's engines must have to keep up with him at full throttle. "I'll believe it when I see it, bro!" Sonic immediately got cocky again at the idea that anything could go as fast as him.

"Well, it will be a while until I have the blueprints even done, Sonic," Tails began explaining the process. "After that, I still need to find all the parts I'll need to build it. Then, I need to build the frame and work out all the wiring. Plus, I'll have to…"

"Whoa, little bro, hold up there! I'll take your word for it, OK?" Sonic interrupted Tails' sudden ranting that would quickly get to topics that the hedgehog knew nothing about.

"Ooops, sorry, Sonic! I forgot that you don't like it when I get all technical and stuff," Tails apologized for his short ranting.

"It's cool, bro! Just remember that I don't speak geek!" Sonic joked with Tails about the fox's tendency to launch into long, detailed explanations on topics that happened to interest him greatly when they came up.

"Thanks a lot, Sonic," Tails sarcastically remarked to the blue hedgehog, which earned him a soft punch to the shoulder for the comeback. "So, how was your movie?" Tails switched the topic as he pretended to rub his sore arm from the hit.

"Lame-o to the extreme, bro!" Sonic quickly announced as he did an imitation of him scrunching his face up in a comical rendering of either mock terror or extreme constipation and pretending to scream silently like one of the actresses in the old horror film he'd just finished. He noticed that this earned a small chuckle from Tails in response as the blue hedgehog also smiled at his own joke. "I actually can't blame ya for fallin' asleep like that, buddy! That movie almost knocked me out, too!"

"Ha ha ha… You're just not afraid of anything, are you, Sonic?" Tails posed the observation that was also a legitimate question.

"At least not ghosts that are made of cardboard!" Sonic replied as they both laughed a little more. Their laughter hadn't even started to dissipate yet when a loud crash was heard from upstairs in the living room as someone broke the solid, wooden door to the small, two-story home right off its hinges and let it fall loudly to the floor. "What on Mobius…?!" Sonic started to shout in surprise before a loud voice from the house above their heads overpowered his own.

"SONIC!! Come out here right now, Sonic!" Amy Rose's clearly distinguishable yell rang out with enough volume to penetrate the metal-coated walls of the cavernous hangar and echo in the ears of both Sonic and Tails.

"What'd I do this time?" Sonic pleaded with himself and his little brother next to him.

"Did you forget about another date or something?" Tails guessed as he still covered his sensitive ears from the echoing pink hedgehog's yell.

"Not that I know o…" Sonic started to answer before another yell was heard from the upstairs room.

"Sonic the Hedgehog! Miles Prower! You are under arrest! Come out quietly, or we will be forced to use drastic measures!" A loud and very authoritarian male voice shouted out.

"The cops?! What do they want with us?" Sonic spoke again in a question that was not particularly aimed at anyone since he knew that Tails was just as oblivious to the current situation as he was. Just then, despite not having done anything to merit being arrested, Sonic noticed how quickly his little buddy's fright turned to thoughts of escape.

"What do we do, Sonic?! We could try to escape in the Tornado and…" Tails frantically started coming up with an escape plan.

Sonic quickly placed both of his gloved hands on the frightened fox's shoulders to calm him down. "Chill, bro! We'll be fine! Now, let's you and me both go on upstairs and greet our guests just like normal, 'kay? Besides, I'm more interested in what it is they think we did than runnin' off," Sonic used his and the fox's own curiosity to settled down the frightened kitsune as he flashed his classic thumbs-up pose to further reassure the scared kit.

Slowly, both of them walked up the narrow staircase which led to a trapdoor that was the only way in and out of the secret underground hangar. Emerging simultaneously into the middle of their own living room, both Mobians found themselves instantly surrounded by Mobian soldiers with handguns drawn and trained right on them. Sonic and Tails were stunned at the unexpected treatment as they also spotted Amy and Rouge standing next to a very decorated and uniformed male officer that was the obvious leader of the small army that now had both of them cornered. Tails didn't handle the loaded guns being pointed right at him very well, and Sonic could hear his little brother begin to moan softly in terror at the sight of the weapons. Sonic, on the other hand, decided to handle the delicate predicament in his own usual style.

"Ya know Amy, when I said it would take a whole army to get me to marry ya right now, I didn't mean it literally!" Sonic joked as he seemed to ignore the armed firing squad that surrounded him as he crossed his arms with his eyes closed and tapped his right foot against the floor rapidly in impatience.

"Heh, Boyfriend Blitzkrieg…" Tails muttered under his breath soft enough that only Sonic was able to catch the inside joke. It seemed to relax the blue hedgehog considerably that his little buddy, no matter how terrified, could still keep his adopted sense of humor in a dire situation.

"Sonic! This is no time for jokes you… You… YOU…!" Amy began to shout at the insolent hedgehog before being silenced immediately by the tall male next to her who obviously had control of the entire situation.

"Miss Rose!" the gruff, yet somehow friendly, voice called out in the middle of the pink hedgehog's crescendo. Amy cut off instantly at the command as the leader of the soldiers stepped into the circle of armed guards surrounding Sonic and Tails. The higher-ranked officer, an imposing anthropomorphic version of a dignified German Sheppard, cleared his throat briefly before repeating his earlier greeting as per protocol, "Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles 'Tails' Prower, you are both hereby under arrest under the authority of the Mobian Police Force for crimes committed on this day of…"

"Hold it right there, bub!" Sonic rudely interrupted the officer's speech as he took one step towards the officer which was easily twice his size. This action, of course, had the response on all the surrounding guards of straightening their guns further in towards the advancing hedgehog as the room filled with the clicking noises of the safeties on the multiple handguns being switched off.

"Sonic, don't! They've got guns, remember?!" Tails suddenly shouted out as he grabbed on to the blue hedgehog in a crippling embrace, the fox's earlier defiance now completely gone as he was convinced Sonic's rude manners would get them both killed.

"Relax, bro! I just want to know why these guys want to put us in the slammer!" Sonic responded.

"Then may I suggest that you cooperate, Sonic the Hedgehog?" the authoritative canine officer broke in using a voice that seemed unphased by the tense atmosphere of the room. Taking a quick glance at all his men standing with hair-trigger alertness, the older cop reached out with one hand and lowered it slowly with palm downwards, a sign that was almost simultaneously accompanied by the other surrounding police dogs, cats, and other assorted species lowering their weapons, switching back on their respective safeties, and holstering the guns almost in tandem.

"You sure you wanted to do that, officer?" Rouge spoke up as the circle of police-Mobians expanded to allow her and Amy to step forward to the leader's side. "You might as well have given them a 'get out of jail free' card."

"I'm the one in charge here, Miss Rouge. I would suggest you avoid questioning my tactics, especially given the long list of thievery incidents I could call down on your head," the head officer spoke up as he gave Rouge a glance that could freeze magma.

The bat seemed unaffected, however, as she responded while crossing her arms in defiance, "Ha, if you could prove any of those were my fault, then I'd already be in handcuffs."

"This is interesting and all, but why'd you guys decide to just barge in here in the first place?!" Sonic raised his voice in impatience.

"You know exactly why, Sonic! I can't believe you or Tails! Why would you ever want to hurt them?!" Amy blurted out in a loud yell as the pink hedgehog couldn't decide on whether to bring out her hammer to pulverize them both or to break down into uncontrollable sobs of tears.

"What?! Hurt who, Amy?!" Tails took the words out of Sonic's mouth even as the blue hedgehog formed the sounds in his own throat.

The rapidly degenerating situation immediately was broken by the sound of an ominous, low growl coming from the leader of the contingent of elite troopers. It seemed that this officer greatly disliked situations that became unorganized and chaotic like this one was tending to go now, so he decided to give his men new orders, "Please escort Miss Rose and Miss Rouge outside, men."

"Hold on, there, head hound," Rouge commented as a couple officers approached to haul her off. "We know these two killers. You might want us around to help you question them."

"Very well," the canine officer announced with a short sigh. "But this is your last warning, both of you," he said as he gave both Rouge and Amy a short glance to gauge their reactions.

"Wait, did Rouge just say 'killers'?!" Tails shouted out in shock. "You mean… you think Sonic and I killed someone today?!"

"That's what we're here to find out," the officer responded to the still frightened kit as he walked a few steps back to sit in an armchair that Sonic customarily lounged in after a long run. "Please, sit down, all four of you," the dog civilly commanded as if this were his house. Sonic and Tails plopped down obediently on the living room sofa, and Amy and Rouge found a couple of chairs from the nearby kitchen table to bring into the small group now seated in a rough circle in Tails' downstairs room. "Now, let's start from the beginning, shall we? Sonic, where were you and Mr. Prower today at around noon?" the lead officer began his interrogation.

"Me and my bro were probably still at Vanilla's house eatin' lunch," Sonic truthfully answered while he tapped his foot silently in anticipation of when this was all going to make sense.

"Ah ha! So he admits it, then!" Rouge suddenly spoke up from her seat next to Amy and across from the sofa Sonic and Tails were seated in.

"No, I don't believe it! I thought it wasn't true!" Amy hysterically added as she broke down into tears while covering her face with her hands.

"Wait just one robot-kickin' second there, Ames! Exactly what'd ya think I've done?!" Sonic posed the question one last time as he stared at the crying pink hedgehog.

"Enough!" the canine officer half-barked as his patience at the uncooperative fugitives and civilians hit its limit. After the room again quieted down to complete silence, he spoke again, "Seeing as how none of you are capable of having a decent discussion right here, I will be forced to take you all downtown for proper questioning!"

"But, why?" Tails weakly spoke as his words almost caught in his throat. The yellow kit wasn't sure how Sonic, Rouge, and Amy could act so cool and disrespectful around the menacing officer; he was most certainly intimidated by the uniformed German Sheppard.

"The two ladies will be going with us for failure to cooperate with an officer," the head cop spoke up matter-of-factly. "And, you two will be brought in for murder!"

"MURDER?!" Tails shrieked as he heard the accusation. The yellow fox immediately started to turn pale as his body slumped back against the sofa he was sitting in beside Sonic.

"Correct, but not just murder. You and Sonic are wanted for the double homicide of Vanilla the rabbit and her daughter Cream," the canine officer continued on in a merciless voice.

"WHAT?! Cream and Vanilla are dead?! And you think I did it?!" Sonic blurted out as he found himself completely confused by the news and how he could be a suspect.

"Both Miss Rouge and Miss Rose have shown our officers the bodies of both suspects, and we have found two sets of footprints leading to and from the house that belong to you and Mr. Prower here, no others," the officer continued to inform the overwhelmed hedgehog and fox.

Sonic's jaw by now had just about extended to the rug on the floor below him in shock. "That doesn't prove that I did anything!" Sonic shouted back in self defense.

"Indeed, it doesn't," the large hound agreed with the blue hedgehog. "You, Sonic the hedgehog, may only be an accomplice or accessory to murder. However, we do have evidence that points to Mr. Prower here as the likely suspect who committed these acts."

"You think I killed Cream and her mom?!" Tails yelled in disbelief at the accusation.

"Think? Ha! We know you did it, fox boy!" Rouge remarked with a sadistic glee from the sidelines.

"But…" Tails weakly wanted to defend himself from the accusation, but speech chose that exact moment to fail him as the poor fox's mind reeled under the weight of what he was hearing.

"The game's up, son," the head officer almost growled as he slowly and deliberately stood up and crossed the room to stand directly over the cowering kitsune on the sofa. The impression from this maneuver was to make Tails seem like a little insect facing down a giant monster, and this effect didn't fail to register to the small fox in the slightest as Tails began shaking uncontrollably in his seat. "You've probably seen too many crime shows on TV and assumed that all the truly great criminals have to leave their own custom 'calling card' at every scene to annoy the cops, right? Well, this is real life son! Here, people that get killed aren't just wearing makeup and lying still, and criminals that think they're being clever get punished!"

Tails stared up at the officer's burning red eyes that seemed almost to tower over him by miles as the terrified fox curled all his arms, feet, and tails around himself in a protective ball that still vibrated uncontrollably. Sonic noticed that the officer was almost literally scaring his little brother to death and immediately became enraged at the menacing police dog. "And what makes you so sure he did it, Snoz-zilla?!" Sonic unwisely insulted the person who would ultimately decide his innocence or guilt as every cobalt fur on Sonic's body bristled in the barely suppressed urge to protect his terrified little brother.

"I would choose your words more wisely, hedgehog!" the now also enraged canine leader barked as he shared his withering gaze with the defiant blue hedgehog. The look was so menacing and powerful, that even Sonic immediately felt his throat dry up and had to fight the urge to show his own fear by gulping down much needed moisture from his mouth. "Do not think that I accuse others lightly!" the canine head officer continued speaking in a voice that only the most foolish person in the world would dare interrupt. "The proof is in the white hairs we found on Mrs. Vanilla's gloves and this, which we found in her lap along with young Cream's deceased body!" Without missing a single beat, another officer stepped up and handed something to his superior. Wheeling about in less than a second, the leader then revealed the wretched object by dangling it inches from Tails horror-struck face.

The fox took one look at the thing in the officer's hand and went completely pale. Tails moved his mouth quickly to try and speak, scream, cry, make any kind of noise whatsoever, but not a single sound escaped the terrified kit's lips. Finally, as his big blue irises grew to impossibly huge sizes, the two-tailed kitsune collapsed back into his seat unconscious. Upon fainting, Tails' tightly wrapped appendages immediately fell away from the tight fetal position he had been in as the fox's body sprawled out completely on the couch.

Sonic, instead of spin dashing the oppressive officer in half right then and there, gawked at the object as well. Dangling carelessly over the unconscious form of his little brother from the well trimmed, clawed fingers of the head officer was the crudely misshapen and poorly stitched doll which resembled Tails that they had left at the rabbits' home earlier that day. Finally recovering from his shock, Sonic managed to speak once more in his brother's defense, "Framed! My little bro must have been framed! He'd never do something like this!"

"Sonic, (sniff) I know you have nothing to do with this. Tails probably did it when you weren't looking! Please, don't waste your life trying to save him! He fooled us all!" Amy began pleading with the stunned blue hedgehog. "Please, Sonic! I know you're innocent! Don't try to protect him and get thrown in jail, too! I can't be married to a convict!!"

"No, Amy, ya don't understand! Tails didn't kill anyone, and neither did I!" Sonic tried to settle down the emotional pink hedgehog. "We stopped by Vanilla's house on our way back home this morning on our run because my bud here suddenly got sharp pains in his chest, so I worried about him and took him to get some help! I could see that Cream's house was the closest, so I juiced over there as fast as I could with Tails in my arms!" Sonic began to explain the gigantic misconception.

"Save it for the jury, Sonic!" the head officer growled as he produced a pair of handcuffs to place on the blue hedgehog. Just then, however, one of the other officers in the room stepped forward briskly and whispered something inaudible to everyone else in the angry dog's ear. The furious expression on the lead cop's face slowly dissolved in response to whatever the other police-Mobian had mentioned. At long last, the canine officer again spoke up in a much less threatening voice, "On second thought, please continue Mr. Sonic."

"'Bout time!" Sonic commented before launching into the heart of his explanation. "Ya see, I got there and told Mrs. Vanilla that my little bro's chest was hurtin' really bad, and she said she'd check him out just in case. She looked him over real good with her hands, but didn't find anything wrong with him," Sonic hurriedly recounted the events of the visit, purposefully leaving out the dramatic part where he had gotten almost everyone to believe that Tails had been shot, of course. "After that, Mrs. Vanilla invited us to eat lunch with her and Cream. We were both starvin', so we had a couple sandwiches, some pie, and left."

"That explains Tails' fur being on Mrs. Vanilla's hands and her living room couch, but how do you explain this horrendous excuse for a doll?" the disbelieving head officer asked the blue hedgehog in an attempt to reveal a flaw is his likely alibi.

"That thing's just an old toy that we think Tails forgot about a long time ago. He found it in his closet yesterday, and left it with Mrs. Vanilla to fix up for him," Sonic quickly spoke up without a hint of deception in his voice.

"Ha! Likely story, gorgeous! You're not as bad at this lying stuff as I thought you were!" Rouge unhelpfully commented at Sonic's sketchy story.

"Actually, it checks out rather well," the lead canine officer surprised everyone by saying in an almost jovial voice. "Mrs. Vanilla's body was found in the chair next to her knitting supplies, was it not?"

"Yes sir. And, if I remember correctly, it appeared as though she had one of her stitching tools lying next to her as if she had dropped it in fright," the same officer who had whispered to the authoritative dog earlier responded in a crisp tone.

"The sets of tracks leading to and from the residence also match Sonic's story, sir," another feline officer broke in. "The tracks leading up to the house were from Sonic only and it could be easily seen that he was in a hurry. The footprints leaving the house, however, were from both Tails and Sonic and at a much less hurried pace."

"Miss Rose, you said you had seen this doll before and identified it as belonging to Tails. When exactly was this?" the head officer asked. He no longer seemed mad, but, rather, more amused as he tried to piece together the evidence and test it against Sonic's vague, but possible, alibi.

"Well, it was just this morning, actually," Amy obediently spoke up. "I came over here for a visit, and…"

Just then, the pink hedgehog's explanation was cut short by the laughter of the blue hedgehog seated across from him. "Ha ha ha ha! You're callin' that a visit?! More like an invasion! Good thing my little bro had an escape route!" Sonic mirthfully remarked as he laughed.

"Oooooohh…!" Amy started to growl as she prepared to work herself into another frenzy at the unhelpful hedgehog. "Sonic! I swear I'll…!" Just then, Amy's mind caught up with her anger as she realized that there was only one way Sonic could have known about her talk with Tails. A look of rage and shock crossed her face as everyone could imagine flames spouting from her body as she continued shouting at Sonic, "You were HERE!! All that time you were hiding from me, and you had Tails lie to me that you were gone!"

"Well, that's pretty obvious," Rouge sidelined with an unhelpful remark that further fueled Amy's anger towards the evasive, blue boyfriend of hers.

Before Amy could bring out her hammer and chase Sonic around like the world's fastest piñata, the hound in charge of the officers present broke in with the voice of reason, "Miss Rose! If you would be so kind as to continue your earlier explanation..."

"Oh, right, my bad," Amy snapped back to her calmer self as she now tried to act completely innocent and docile, an act which went a long ways towards convincing all the officers present that the pink hedgehog could be bipolar. "Well, after I asked Tails if Sonic was home, he told me that he wasn't and ran upstairs claiming that he had to go to the bathroom all the sudden. Of course, now I know that this was all just a big lie!" Amy again edged a good deal of anger into her voice as she stared Sonic in the eyes.

"Not all of it, Amy!" Sonic almost playfully remarked as he looked straight back at the pink hedgehog with eyes that betrayed his currently mischievous attitude. "Tails really did have to go to the bathroom."

"OOOOHH! SONIC, you know what I meant!" Amy shouted as she finally had enough of his carefree attitude.

"Miss Rose, please, could we return to the question at hand? When did you see this doll that you claim belongs to Mr. Prower here?" the lead officer interrupted a second time, aggravation already starting to rise in his voice again.

"Well, right after Tails went upstairs, I saw that sitting right there on his TV. I figured the doll belonged to him, but I didn't know if he even wanted me to see it and had left it up there by accident. So, I just left." Amy managed to finish without any further interruptions.

"So, even at best, no one can positively trace this doll back to Mr. Prower personally creating it?" the older, canine officer posed the fact.

"Nope, not even my little bro remembers makin' that thing," Sonic commented.

"Making what?" Tails' voice suddenly chimed in weakly as the yellow fox slowly sat back up from his position on the couch where he had collapsed unconscious a minute ago. Getting his bearings, Tails spotted the leader of the gathered police squad sitting in the armchair again and instinctively curled up into a protective ball once more. Sonic noticed this and sighed as he tried to coax Tails back out from his furry shell.

"Hey, bro, it's OK, buddy," Sonic spoke in a somewhat compassionate voice, but, since there were so many people around, it was nowhere near the comforting voice he wanted to use on the scared kit. "I told 'em everything, bro, and they know ya didn't do it."

"They… They do?" Tails whimpered from his safe, furry cage.

"Course they do, bud! Amy here was just tellin' them how she went through your stuff this mornin'," Sonic filled the fox in on the part of the conversation Tails had missed.

This badly worded summary got Tails' undivided attention as his arms, legs, and tails immediately dropped away from their protective positions and the yellow fox sat bolt upright in his seat. "She did what?! Sonic, she didn't find my secret compartment with all my private stuff, did she?!" Tails frantically asked.

"Chill, bro! She just saw your old doll there sittin' on the TV after you two talked this morning," Sonic replied.

"Secret compartment, eh? Hmmm…" Rouge mumbled to herself just loud enough for everyone in the room to overhear. "Pardon me, big, tall, and handsome," the bat playfully remarked to the leader of the police, "but could I perhaps use that search warrant you have there to check a certain fox's room?"

"Absolutely not, Miss Rouge!" the officer answered immediately in a tone that betrayed no amusement at the intended joke.

"Gees, it's not like I would actually want to go through this young kit's stuff anyways," Rouge explained her joke to the people around her who seemed less than amused. "Sorry, kid, but you're not really worth it," she also commented towards Tails, who was now genuinely concerned about someone actually finding his secret hiding spot where he kept his few most treasured and private possessions. Now that Sonic knew about it, Tails was sure he'd have to spill the beans on its location to him sooner or later, but he currently had much more important things to deal with.

A pause followed in which no one uttered a word as everyone present tried to figure out how the current developments fit into the overall picture. Finally, the officer in charge broke the silence by continuing the four-way interrogation, "Miss Rouge, remind me again how you fit in to all this, please."

"Always happy to help," Rouge snidely remarked to the officer that she knew would rather cuff her than rely on her to help solve a case. "I was just out on a nice flight to stretch my wings when I spotted Vanilla and Cream's home and decided to drop in."

"More like rob them blind…" Amy remarked from the seat next to Rouge in the small living room.

"You know, gal, sometimes even I like to just sit down and talk to someone nicely," Rouge defended herself in a tone of mock hurt at Amy's accusation. "Anyways, I knocked, but no one answered. I noticed that the door was unlocked, so I walked right in and saw both of them in that chair. I thought that they were asleep, until I noticed that Vanilla was holding Cream pretty tight, and Cream looked like she was scared to death, and I mean that literally. Still, there was no blood and the place didn't look like anyone had busted in recently, so I flew off to tell Pinky here and call the cops."

"So, Cream really is dead?" Tails softly asked. He already knew the answer, but it was such a sudden event that he couldn't really believe it. No one seemed to notice right then how he failed to mention Vanilla as well.

"I'm afraid that's the only thing that we do know for certain now, son," the lead, canine officer broke the news to Tails for the second time. "I'm very sorry that we ever accused you, Mr. Prower."

"I understand. I would have thought the same thing if I was you," Tails answered as he fought back the tears from losing one of his closest friends, not to mention Vanilla as well which was always the closest thing he had to a real mother.

As he started to break down in front of everyone, Tails felt a soft, stubby hand pat him gently on his shoulder. Tails stopped his tears even as they began at the strange feeling. Sonic was the only one sitting in arm's reach of the crying fox, but Tails knew the blue hedgehog's touch and this one didn't belong to Sonic at all. Curious, Tails re-opened his watery eyes to see a small chao hovering in front of him, also crying uncontrollably as it cuddled closely to the kitsune's warm, fur-covered body. "Cheese!" Tails cried out in surprise mixed with a bit of relief.

"Yes, it would appear that whoever or whatever committed this crime neglected to deal with Miss Cream's pet chao. Mr. Prower, you seem to be the one who knew Miss Cream the most and the one whom Cheese seems to like best, so I will leave the chao in your care. That is, unless you would prefer that I have Cheese set free at the nearest Chao Garden instead," the main officer explained. He could understand fully if Tails was unwilling to raise the little chao now, seeing as how it would only serve to bring back constant memories of the now deceased Cream.

"No!" Tails surprised everyone with no only his response, but the volume at which he made it. "I want to take care of Cheese now. It's… it's what Cream would have wanted…" the brave fox spoke as he gently stroked the crying chao on his shoulder with one of his gloved hands.

"Very well, Mr. Prower. Also, we would like to return this to you as well," the head officer spoke while he tossed the crudely stitched doll of Tails over to the yellow fox that it resembled. "We have already processed it for fingerprints and the like, but nothing was found to be out of the ordinary with this doll so we have no further need of it for evidence."

"One of the bad things about almost everyone on Mobius wearing these white gloves, isn't it? Never any fingerprints," Rouge playfully taunted the officer who probably would have had her jailed for life by now if it wasn't for her own pair of white gloves she always wore.

"Indeed," the canine officer snarled his response under his breath in agitation at the bat's current position of immunity. "Well, it seems that we have come here to arrest a couple of murderers and solve this case, only for it to get much more complicated and all our potential leads to dry up. I suppose that this is where we must go back to square one and…" the head officer's voice suddenly was cut short by a piercing, high-pitched scream from the sofa.

"CHAOOOOO!" Cheese unexpectedly squealed at a volume everyone present thought would be impossible for such a small creature.

"Aaaahh! Cheese, what's wrong?" Tails shouted to the small creature. Due to the chao being only inches away from his large and very sensitive ears, Tails felt immense pain from the little chao's screaming. Tails managed to keep his ears mostly covered as he followed the noisy chao's line of sight to the doll of himself that now lay in his lap from the canine officer's expert toss a second ago. "Quick, Sonic, take this thing upstairs! I think it's what's scaring Cheese!" Tails had to yell his orders to the hedgehog seated right next to him in order for Sonic to hear them.

No sooner had Sonic grabbed the ugly doll and ran upstairs and out of sight, then Cheese immediately stopped its ear-piercing wails. The little chao still seemed very frazzled, however, as it floated down into Tails' lap and quivered with fear. Tails gently scooped up the shaking chao and held it softly against his white-furred chest with one hand while petting it gently with the other, a trick he had learned from Cream a long time ago that could always calm down any chao, and it seemed to work especially well with Cheese who now uttered not a sound and seemed to almost go to sleep instantaneously against the warm, furry pillow that was Tails' chest.

"Why did that doll scare Cheese like that?" Amy asked the question that was on all the minds of the observers of the strange event as Sonic returned empty-handed from upstairs.

"Ha! Must be because of who it looks like!" Rouge playfully remarked, clearly not taking the situation seriously at all.

Sonic's eyes flared at this comment as he sat back down on the sofa next to Tails. "Are you sayin' something bad about my little bro?!" the blue hedgehog all but dared the bat to continue her ridicule so he had an excuse for a fight.

"I was just joking, handsome," Rouge delivered her defense without shifting her playful tone one bit. "Don't get me wrong, Foxy here holds the market on cuteness as far as guys go. Too bad he's just not my type," the vain bat concluded her unique assessment.

"Ummm… Thanks?" Tails responded in confusion to Rouge's perception of him. Tails quickly brought the discussion back on topic however as he glanced down at the resting chao in his hands. "But, seriously, I've never seen Cheese act like this before."

"Well, Cheese is probably still hurting real bad since Cream just died," Amy offered a solution. "After all, those two were so close together that you could never find them apart for more than a second."

"Yeah, that makes sense I suppose, but why did Cheese freak out when it saw that doll?" Tails asked the question that had really been bugging him from the uproar a minute ago.

After a long pause with no one responding, Sonic broke the silence, "Beats me, bro. I know that you don't really like that thing either, so maybe it just scares Cheese, too? It did act really strange when you first showed that doll to Vanilla and Cream, remember?"

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Tails said aloud as he recalled the chao's sudden terror upon touching the doll's gem earlier during their visit. The fox realized that there was a connection between the crude plushy of himself and the young chao, but currently no theories came to mind that made the relationship clear.

"The way Cheese was acting, you'd think that the doll killed Vanilla and Cream," Amy jokingly remarked.

"I would almost have to agree with Miss Rose, even though it sounds absurd," the German Sheppard police chief spoke at long last. "However, my men have inspected every misshapen stitch of that strange doll and have concluded that it hides no concealed weapons of any kind. Although horrid and highly suspicious given its placement on top of the victim's lap, it is completely harmless and is most likely unrelated to the murder of Mrs. Vanilla and her daughter."

"Yeah, I can see it know, 'Deranged Two-Tailed Doll Murders Family'," Sonic chimed in with some humor to lighten up the situation. "It'll be in all the papers!"

"Mr. Sonic, I appreciate your trying to make light of the current situation, however, I must request that your jokes contain a lot more tact and…" the police chief was suddenly interrupted by another officer hurriedly rushing through the still door-less entrance to the house and addressing him.

"Sir! We have a situation on our hands!" the winded Greyhound officer spoke up as he struggled to stand at full attention in the presence of his superior.

"What is it, Swifty? You and Marcus were supposed to still be watching the rabbit's residence!" the head officer barked back as he began to rise from his seat to face the other canine at eye level.

"We were sir, but then a dark figure approached the house and ran straight in the front door. We prepared to capture it, but as we looked into the door a bright light blinded us. When we looked around a second later, that thing and both of the bodies were gone!" the officer gave a full debriefing.

"Sounds like it might be our murderer coming to clean up his mess," the head officer remarked. "Didn't you get a good look at him at all, Swifty?"

"No, sir. He ran in so fast it just looked like a blur, and we think he used a strobe grenade or something to cover his escape," the sullen police dog answered.

"This just got a whole lot more complicated, then," the police chief commented. "I want an all points bulletin out for anyone suspicious that matches this person's description! If whoever this is think that they can just mess around with the law, I'm going to teach them a thing or two!"

"Wait, sir! I'm just getting a report from one of the officers that was backtracking the trail leading to the rabbits' home made by Sonic and Tails this morning. He says that in a spot near the forest he saw a shadowy figure running off with three bodies in his hands!" a feline officer that was standing in the room with an active headset on quickly chimed in.

"What?! Can you confirm that?! That sounds like our new suspect, but we are only aware of two bodies!" the head officer shouted loudly as he felt helpless to do anything to stop this mysterious person and clearly wanted to get the facts straight immediately, especially if this had just turned into a triple homicide.

"Yes sir. Officer Stefan says that he gave chase to a mysterious, dark figure that carried two rabbits on his shoulders. He also says the individual ran to that spot near the forest, uncovered a partially concealed body, and ran off with all three corpses," the feline officer again reported.

"Any idea who the third person might have been?" Rouge suddenly took the words straight from the police chief's mouth.

"Officer Stefan reports that it was a red creature with white gloves and a white-furred crescent on its chest," the extremely informative feline cop answered just as if her boss had asked her instead of Rouge.

"No way! It can't be! That sounds just like…" Tails began to identify the third and, up to this point, unknown victim before his voice cracked under the realization of what he was just about to say.

"Knuckles," Sonic finished the young fox's sentence as his eyes widened in disbelief. Whatever this mysterious creature was, it had just gotten a lot more serious. It wouldn't take much for a murderer to kill Vanilla and Cream, but Knuckles was a totally different story. Who or what was responsible for this was a real threat, even to him.

"Sir, our contact says that he lost the subject as it ran away again. He said it crested a series of hills and made its way towards the horizon before he could give chase," the feline radio operator spoke up.

"Impossible! Only one creature can move that fast, and I'm looking at him right now!" the head officer shouted as he couldn't make sense of what was happening.

"Hang on, if it was running over the hills away from the officer, then that means that it's heading straight here!" Tails announced as his mind quickly checked the incoming reports against the fox's knowledge of the surrounding geography. Quickly, Tails set the slumbering Cheese down on the sofa and rushed out the open doorway to the cliff his home was built on.

Everyone else quickly followed the fox out the door and came to a halt a few feet away as they all stared at what the yellow kit's gloved finger now pointed at. In the near distance, they all saw a large, mechanical battleship rise from behind the cover of the surrounding hills and into the sky. Painted on the side of the craft was an all too familiar logo.

"Eggman!" Sonic shouted in disbelief as he watched the flying fortress pivot in mid-air and blast off in the opposite direction in a hasty retreat.

"I can't believe it!" Amy yelled in her confusion. "I know that Eggman is always trying to kill Sonic, but he's never actually had someone murdered!"

"That's true, this doesn't really sound like Eggy's kind of work to me," Rouge agreed.

"It doesn't matter now," the canine chief interrupted. "Whatever was just stealing those bodies clearly is working with or for Dr. Robotnik, and I intend to ask him a few questions."

"Sure you don't want our help, chief?" Sonic offered as he crossed his arms in smug satisfaction that he would again get to be the hero and rush off to fight Eggman with just Tails as backup.

"No, Sonic," the police chief unexpectedly declined, "This is a police matter now. We have no proof to indict Eggman at the moment, so I simply wish to ask him a few questions as to his involvement in this case."

"You'll never get anything from old fatty that way," Rouge tried to tell the officer.

"Once again, I ask that you just keep the police work to the authorities, Miss Rouge. We will find who is responsible for the deaths of Mrs. Vanilla, Miss Cream, and Mr. Knuckles our way," the canine leader said before he and the other police-Mobians began to file away to their vehicles at the bottom of the stairs that lead up and down from Tail's cliffside abode. Amy and Rouge also followed them, seeing as how they both had no reason to stay any longer.

"Mr. Knuckles…" Sonic spoke once everyone but Tails was now gone and out of earshot. The blue hedgehog snorted as he began laughing slightly at how absurd it sounded to address Knuckles in the proper terms.

"Sonic, it isn't funny!" Tails shouted at him, horrified that Sonic could act that way when almost half of the people they had both known were now dead. Tails had caught that quick look from Rouge as she turned away to leave a moment ago. It was the same one he had on his face at the news that Cream was gone. The fox began crying again as he realized that so much had happened today that would change his life forever, but, most of all, that Sonic didn't even seem to care and just kept on cracking jokes.

Sonic noticed his brother's no nonsense attitude and saw the kit beginning to tear up again. "Hey, bro. Look, I'm sorry, buddy," Sonic tried to explain himself to the weeping fox. "It's just, well, I'm supposed to be the tough guy, right? And, tough guys never cry even when somethin' bad happens. That's why I crack jokes, Tails! It's just my way of makin' myself feel better!"

"Well then, do me a favor, Sonic," Tails tearfully whimpered as he walked back towards the demolished entrance to his home, "Go feel better somewhere else."

Sonic didn't have a clue what to say in response as Tails continued to walk away into the house. Should he rush up and apologize, or just run off like his little brother had told him to? Did Tails just need time alone, or did he really need Sonic to be serious and comfort him instead? Truth be told, the knowledge of so many of his friends being killed had never made its way into the blue hedgehog's thick skull until now. He had refused to admit it to himself and instead resorted to his tried and true method of 'if I don't think about it, then it never really happened'. Tails had brought this fantasy world of feigned ignorance crashing down now as Sonic realized that soon he would also need comforting when it finally set in. Despite his reputation, Sonic refused to be alone when this happened.

Quietly, Sonic followed the grieving fox inside. Taking the time to lift the door back onto its hinges and locking it tightly against the approaching darkness of the now twilight hour outside, Sonic turned to see his little brother staring at him from the couch as he cradled a still sleeping Cheese in his arms. With deliberate strides, Sonic walked over to the sofa and sat down as close to Tails as possible. Without exchanging a word between them, just a long, unwavering glance, Tails finally snuggled his head comfortably into Sonic's lap as he continued crying. Sonic made no effort to stop the kit's tears as he wrapped a comforting arm around his little brother's shoulder and actually began crying a few tears of his own. No matter how the hedgehog tried to keep his own waterworks secret, a few stray droplets must have fell on the yellow fox's head as Sonic soon felt his own body be enveloped in the comforting warmth of the kit's twin tails as they wrapped around his cobalt blue torso. Thus entangled in each other's embrace, both of them cried for the loss of their friends and vowed together to find the person responsible and make sure they were never happy again.

Unbeknownst to them, however, the one responsible now sat in Tail's room, reveling immensely in each moment of sorrow and rage from the two sitting one floor below. Whoever this mysterious person was that seemed happy to clean up his messes, the Tails Doll didn't know, nor did it care. The intense feelings coming from below whipped him into a euphoria of sorts in which he enjoyed every passing second more than the last. However, one name in particular he had heard today caused him to stop and think. _Robotnik. Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Hmmm… Perhaps now the time has come to get back at the one who is to blame for my miserable existence. Although, it's not so bad right now! Three square meals in one day, followed by an endless dessert of bitter tears... Heee he he he ha ha ha haaaa! Delicious!_


	7. Chapter 7: Driven to Madness

Things Best Forgotten

Disclaimer: Is exactly the same as Dat-claimer from a chapter ago in which I said that I don't own anything Sonic. Got it?

OK, thanks to me starting a new story right when I was in the middle of this one, this chapter has been delayed longer than usual. However, I assure all my readers that both of my stories now will hopefully receive roughly equal attention so that one or the other is updated every week or so. Now, with that said, I need to say a huge thank you yet again to all the wonderful people who took the time to review last chapter! This story is attracting a lot of you that I've never heard from before, and still more that favorite it but are too shy to leave a review! I love knowing that people are reading and enjoying my work, so, please, keep up the needed encouragement!

Now, on to the story! This chapter answers a few questions that the last one brought up. The most important being, who is stalking Sonic and Tails and took those bodies? For readers, things are about to get a little clearer, while for our favorite furry friend (and if he isn't, why are you reading this anyway? XD) Tails, he's about to be...

Chapter 7: Driven to Madness

A narrow beam of light shone in the fox's eyes. His first instinct was to roll over slightly so that the annoying shaft of illumination struck the top of his forehead instead. This tactic worked, but only for a few more minutes until the rising sun outside caused the light to angle ever more downwards and once again into the tired fox's eyes. Closing his eyelids tighter against the oppressive light rays, Tails attempted another maneuver to block the interfering sunlight from striking him as he rolled almost completely over to allow the light coming through the blinds a target only on the back of his furry head. Satisfied with having won the fight against Mother Nature, he settled in yet again to return to his disturbed rest. However, it seemed that Mother Nature had yet one more trump card left in her hand to rouse the slumbering fox as Tails begrudgingly noticed that, although his current position protected him perfectly from the incoming rays of the morning sun, it also left him just uncomfortable enough to make sleep almost impossible. Realizing that he was defeated and that any hopes for further rest would be futile, Tails slowly opened his eyes to greet the new day, albeit in a way which suggested a less than joyful welcome.

Yawning deeply as he still lay in his current position, too lazy at the moment to sit up yet, Tails' eyes finally adjusted to the morning's illumination of the room as fuzzy images of the roof slowly came into focus. Immediately, Tails felt that something was wrong as the object he was laying on started to feel unusually strange, as if he wasn't in his own bed. Glancing down from the ceiling above him, Tails finally discovered why; he was just now waking up while laying on his living room sofa. With a small start, Tails tried to remember how he had ended up there last night. At first he couldn't really recall ever falling asleep to begin with. There had been a whole bunch of cops that came over, something having to do with Eggman again, and then Sonic had sat with him all night while they had both… cried? No, that was impossible. Sonic never cried, and he rarely acted so mushy even when Tails did. So, what could have been so wrong that it would have driven Sonic to cry with him all night until he had fallen asleep? Just as Tails finally backed his train of thought up to this critical point, all the memories of yesterday came pouring back to him as his groggy mind also began to reboot from the short night's rest.

_Cream…_ Tails instantly remembered as he recalled vividly the news that the cops had delivered along with their handcuffs less than 24 hours ago. _Vanilla and Knuckles, too. Why?_ he asked himself the same question he knew that he had spent most of the night pondering. That is, the few conscious moments which he could recall as he and Sonic cried themselves to sleep over the loss of their friends. Those sorrowful moments now seemed almost no more real than his dreams which had haunted him the whole night through. Some had been wonderful memories, mostly of Cream making flower crowns for him and everyone else, Vanilla giving him her typical warm greeting followed by homemade desserts, and Knuckles in his rare, less gruff and more playful moods. Most, though, had not. Tails now raised both hands to his head to apply pressure to his aching skull as he recalled the nightmares, the visions he had encountered time and time again during his rest last night. Gruesome images of those he cared for in various stages of dismemberment, his friends' bodies lying out on small, glowing, white tables which resembled graves, and, everywhere observing the terrified kit as he saw all this, a small, floating figure with two red eyes and a glowing red orb which hung between them. Tails immediately shook his head violently to rid the image from his mind.

Sitting up at last on his improvised bed for the night, Tails finally realized that Sonic was gone. Taking a quick look around the entire downstairs of his home with a quick sweep of his head, Tails saw no signs of Sonic anywhere. _Probably waited until I fell asleep and then snuck back upstairs to his bed,_ Tails hypothesized. That was when he also noticed the warm, fuzzy blanket that had been resting comfortably over him as he slept last night. Tails knew that Sonic must have put that blanket over him when he left, not wanting to possibly wake the sleeping kit by trying to lift him upstairs and into bed. _Sonic's never this nice to me for so long in a row,_ Tails thought to himself, remembering the somewhat unusual level of compassion Sonic had been constantly giving him for the last couple days as he hugged the extremely comfortable blanket to his white-furred chest using his hands and elbows. _Maybe yesterday was just all a big dream,_ Tails hoped.

That thought, though, suddenly inspired Tails to get excited as he entertained the notion for a while. _Yeah! That's it! It was all just a really intense, bad dream! I probably was working on my new invention, sat down for a quick break, and fell asleep until I woke up just now!_ Tails pretended until he almost came to believe it himself out of desperation for the loss of so many of his friends. _That would even explain why Sonic had been so nice to me all the time! He would only act that gentle for even that long in my wildest dreams! Two days with no pranks? Nope, I was definitely dreaming. OK, but how can I prove it?_ Tails' scientific side took over as he sought a way to figure out if he was in reality right now or not. He removed the warm blanket from the couch so that he could stand and cross the room to reach his house phone to call Cream and set his mind at ease, when he noticed something cuddled up in a furry sort of nest made by his two tails that previously had been concealed by the covers. It was not a terrifying sight, nor a too awfully unfamiliar one, either, but spotting it now assured Tails without a doubt that the events of yesterday were indeed very real as that creature should never have been there otherwise. Gently, Tails lifted the sleeping form of Cheese from his comfortable nest in Tails' furry appendages and placed the Chao back on a pillow his head had rested on most of the night. Tails was surprised that the little Chao had actually slept so well with all his tossing and turning last night, and Tails even wondered if Cheese had ever been at all concerned that he might accidentally roll over and squash him. Apparently not, though, since the neutral Chao only continued to snooze soundlessly while Tails tucked a small end of the blanket Sonic had left for him around Cheese's tiny body.

_No wonder Cream loved Cheese so much,_ Tails observed as he stepped back from the sofa to view his handiwork. _He's so cute that you can't help but feel good around him, if it is a him,_ Tails thought as he finally realized that Cream had never really, truly given him Cheese's gender, if Chao had such a thing. Letting the dilemma pass as unimportant, Tails slowly walked into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for him and the small Chao that he was sure would also be getting up soon.

He only got halfway there, though, when he spotted something resting on his kitchen's counter which divided it from the living room that made Tails almost jump out of his fur. Slapping both of his hands over his mouth to stop himself from screaming or shouting and waking up Cheese, Tails stared straight at the object resting comfortably on top of the counter as if it had always belonged there. Staring back at him in a figure and smile as crooked as ever was the doll that seemed to haunt Tails' every move.

"It can't be! Sonic put you upstairs in my room yesterday! You can't be here!" Tails started softly exclaiming to himself as if the doll could hear him. _There has to be an explanation, Tails! Just think, come on, think!_ Tails wracked his mind one more time for a logical explanation to the impossible situation, and once again came out with only one possible answer. _No! It couldn't be Sonic! He's been super nice to me all the time for the last two days! It just doesn't make sense, unless…_ Tails, unable to come up with any other explanation, slowly forced himself to believe the unbelievably harsh possibility that Sonic really was doing this to him the whole time and was being nice to him more than usual in order to avoid suspicion. _But, why, Sonic? Why would you keep playing such a cruel joke on me?_ Tails' heart still doubted what his mind told him must be true.

The mental conflict, combined with the fox's already delicate emotions having lost so many people that he cared for recently, sent Tails' mind reeling as he was forced to place one hand on his forehead to stop the spinning and the other on a nearby table top to steady his suddenly wobbly legs. Out of this chaos where Tails could hardly tell up from down anymore, a single stray fact suddenly burst through that made everything crystal clear. _That doll,_ Tails finally made the connection, _when I woke up that doll wasn't here, and Sonic hasn't been downstairs since then either! But that would mean that this doll is moving on its own! How could anything do that, unless…_ Tails took one more long look at the disfigured puppet's creepy visage, _it's haunted!_

Tails, still being a young kit and very afraid of ghost stories, let alone ones which turned out to be true, quickly backed away from the harmless looking doll on the counter as if it would fly forward at any moment and consume him. It all made sense now to the young fox, this doll was the one responsible for all the bad things happening recently. It had killed Cream and Vanilla when he left it at their house just yesterday! It was the reason for all of his horrific and bladder-loosening nightmares! And it was probably the one who killed Knuckles after Tails accidentally dropped it during his run! Even the mysterious pain he felt which prevented them from discovering Knuckles' body earlier might have been the work of this demented doll! More than anything at this very moment, Tails wanted Sonic. _He'd know what to do!_ Tails reassured himself, even though he knew that deep down, Sonic had never faced off against a spiritual or possessed being before either.

Realizing that the demonic mannequin might discover that it had been made and decide to attack before Sonic could arrive to render assistance, Tails quickly formed a plan of action to take on the potentially deadly doll by himself. _It seems like it's completely harmless around me. It only appears to attack people when I leave it alone with them, so I should be safe to destroy it myself! But, how?_ Then Tails got a brilliant idea like he was often inclined to do and quickly dashed down the trap door and into his workshop/basement. Moments later, he re-emerged with a good sized, battery powered rotary saw and stepped up to the counter which the doll rested on.

"OK, you freaky doll thing, I know that you're the one causing all these problems and killing all these people, so I'm going to stop you now once and for all!" Tails shouted to the innocent looking plush sitting on his counter top as he turned on the handheld rotary saw. Not even stopping to think if he was taking this too far or might have even lost it completely, Tails revved the saw's motor to maximum RPM's and descended it on the sinister-looking doll. Stuffing and ripped fabric started flying as Tails attacked the doll, fully believing, and oddly enough rightly so, that it was the actual murderer of so many of his friends. All this noise, however, clearly woke the slumbering Chao on the living room couch just a few feet away as Cheese quickly hovered up to see the source of all the loud noises and found Tails meticulously hacking away at something which now emitted showers of white fluff.

"CHAO!! Chao, chao, CHAO!" Cheese started screaming as the sight and loud noises instantly frightened the little Chao to death. If Cheese could have talked, it probably would have just shouted something to Tails like one would imagine a child watching a gruesome execution might have.

Tails didn't hear Cheese's screams of terror over the din of his saw slicing through every stitch on the creepy doll's body. Tails couldn't really believe what he was doing, either. It almost seemed to the young fox that he was watching someone else brutally hack up the doll in front of him instead of his own hands being the culprit. Strangely, though, Tails got an immense sense of relief at vindictively slicing up the plush doll. Perhaps, after all these years of pain, hurt, and worry both before and after he met Sonic, they were now all being heaped upon this one object as Tails destroyed it. Some may argue otherwise, but tearing this doll to shreds felt like the absolute best way to Tails to start to let out his frustration at losing his friends by using it as a scapegoat. Little could Tails have known that this doll was indeed guilty of every crime he now 'executed' it for in order to simply garnish some relief.

Hearing Cheese's cries after finally turning the handheld rotary saw off, Tails turned around with the look of frenzy still in his eyes to stare at the frightened Chao. "Don't worry, Cheese! Look, I destroyed the thing that killed Cream and the others!" Tails spoke to the Chao as if that fact was obvious from the now pile of stuffing with a few remaining pieces of fabric which was now all that remained of the Tails Doll. Then Tails happened to spy the strange, red gem which had been attached to the Tails Doll's head lying on the counter top. "After I smash this, then I'm sure that I'll be rid of this haunted doll forever!" Tails observed as he fetched a small sledgehammer from a kitchen drawer and raised it over his head to shatter the small jewel in one mighty blow. Before he could finish the job, however, Tails was snapped out of his frenzy by a shocked voice other than Cheese's.

"What on MOBIUS?! Bro, what are ya DOIN'?!" Sonic yelled as he came in the front door from an early morning run just to see Tails next to a pile of shredded fabric and white stuffing with a small rotary saw lying on the counter next to him and a mini-sledgehammer in his brother's hand frozen in mid-swing. Sonic had expected for Tails to have been awake by the time he returned, but never in his wildest imagination could he have anticipated the almost surreal sight which now greeted the blue hedgehog. Tails looked almost in a frenzy, totally driven beyond any logical thought whatsoever, which was a significant worry to Sonic as he knew more than anyone how much Tails tended to analyze everything before taking any kind of action. Cheese instantly turned to fly straight at Sonic, hugging the cobalt hedgehog tightly as the frightened Chao whimpered into Sonic's more tan-colored chest, clearly terrified at the sight of Tails right now, too. Sonic placed one of his hands down there to cradle the horrified Chao against his body as he then started to stare daggers at Tails from across the room.

Tails, on his own part, was completely unprepared for Sonic's untimely return and quickly realized himself that he was going way overboard as he snapped to. "Wait, Sonic! I… I can explain!" Tails stammered as he set the hammer down and stepped away from the scene of the unrecognizably mutilated doll.

"Hold on, bro," Sonic stopped Tails in his tracks as the blue hedgehog instead slowly made his way across the room to stand face-to-face with Tails. "I think I understand what's goin' on here now," Sonic said as his shocked expression now turned to one of great concern. "Cream, Mrs. Vanilla, and Knucklehe…, Knuckles'," Sonic corrected himself quickly, remembering how Tails acted to his using the somewhat derogatory nickname for the deceased echidna yesterday evening, "All their deaths so soon and at the same time are bound to be really stressful for ya, so I bet that this was just a way for ya to blow off some steam."

"Well, kinda, Sonic. But, there's more than just that!" Tails quickly informed the blue hedgehog.

"Like what, bro?" Sonic decided to hear Tails out, concerned that something had snapped in the kit's mind due to all this stress.

"That doll of me that I found the other day, remember it?" Tails began his explanation to prove that he had a reason for creating such a huge mess and scaring everyone.

"Kinda have to now, bud. It looks like it's just a big mess now," Sonic wittily observed.

"No, Sonic, listen!" Tails tried to keep Sonic from frequently interrupting him with his comical observations. "I figured it all out! You know how that doll seemed to follow me around all the time but neither of us could explain it?" Tails made that sure Sonic remembered.

"We already went through this, bro. You were probably just carrying it around with you without noticing it because it was once your favorite toy or somethi…" Sonic recapped the earlier resolution to this unusual occurrence before Tails interrupted him.

"No, Sonic! I thought about it just now, and, if it was my favorite toy once, why don't I remember it at all now? You know I have a great memory, so it just doesn't make any sense! But that doesn't matter right now," Tails quickly got back to his earlier train of thought. "Sonic, do you also remember my really bad nightmares the last two nights?" Tails inquired.

"Yeah, you were pretty restless last night, bro, but at least it wasn't like the night before when I had to change your bed for ya," Sonic recalled the recent events vividly. "But what's all this gotta do with…?" Sonic once again tried to rush Tails to the point of all this as he again was interrupted.

"What do both of those things have in common?" Tails expectantly asked.

"Look, bro, I'm all for riddles and everything, but would ya just spit it out already?!" Sonic began to lose a little of his patience at Tails unusual and slightly disturbing behavior.

"It's that doll, Sonic! It was haunted!" Tails finally got to his point.

"Haunted? Bro, are ya sure that you're OK? I know that losing so many of our friends can be really hard, but…" Sonic now worried that Tails was legitimately insane.

"No, Sonic! You gotta believe me! It has been moving around on its own in order to scare me, and it's the reason for all my awful nightmares!" Tails reiterated to try and convince the skeptical hedgehog.

"You mean 'was', little bro," Sonic remarked as he pointed again to the pile of fluff and fabric which was now all that remained of the diminutive, grotesque mannequin. "You sure made it 'give up the ghost' in my book!" Sonic joked even though he was now extremely worried for Tails.

"OK, so maybe I did go a little overboard, Sonic…" Tails admitted as he saw the fragments of the doll that had once resembled him scattered around the counter and floor as it now more resembled a bunch of fallen snow due to all the stuffing, even including, as does all snowfalls, the patches of yellow from the doll's colored fabric which simulated the snow that was unfit to eat.

"A little?! Bro, you just took a mini-buzzsaw and hacked up a good sized doll within the space of a few minutes and turned it into confetti! That's not 'a little' overboard, that's full on psychopath!" Sonic made his concerns known. "And what in the name of chili dogs was the hammer for?!" he demanded to know.

"I… I was just going to smash this last piece of the doll to make sure that it wouldn't be able to kill anyone anymore," Tails spoke sincerely as he pointed to the red gem still sitting helplessly on the counter top.

"**Kill someone?!**" Sonic shouted as he felt Cheese grab on to his chest tighter in fear of the hedgehog's building rage at the ridiculous conversation. Luckily, this action brought Sonic's attention back to being more delicate as he remembered the frightened Chao clinging to him. "Look, bro, even if this doll was haunted, it most certainly couldn't have **killed **anyone," Sonic tried to talk Tails back to reality.

"But, it did, Sonic!" Tails now dropped the largest bombshell yet on the stunned hedgehog. "I left it at Cream's house, and, just a few hours later, both her and Mrs. Vanilla died! And remember when I dropped it on our run? Knuckles must have found it, and it killed him, too! Every time someone is alone with that doll, it…" Tails frantically explained as he sounded totally sincere telling Sonic this crazy theory.

"Whoa! Whoa! Hold up there, bro!" Sonic broke in as he almost physically shut Tails' open muzzle with his unoccupied hand to stop the stream of nonsense coming from his little brother. "Now look, first off, we can't be sure that the doll killed Mrs. Vanilla or Cream because not even the police could figure out why they died," Sonic informed Tails. It had just so happened that on his run this morning he had made a point to stop by the police headquarters for this area and ask for more information about the three dead friends of his and Tails'. However, this news seemed to only support Tails' ideas in his mind as the fox quickly turned it against Sonic.

"Of course not, Sonic! Ghosts don't stab people to death or poison them! They steal their souls and stuff like that!" Tails spouted out this fact, obtained from years of scary movies watched with Sonic at least once a month that proved its validity.

Sonic groaned as he instantly thought back to those nights and horror films as well. If he had known what kind of impact they would eventually have on his little bro, Sonic swore that he would never have made the kid watch them with him against his will back then. "Look, Tails, soul-snatching ghosts and demon possessed dolls don't exist!" Sonic shouted to try to show Tails how ridiculous he sounded now.

"Oh yeah? Maybe we should ask Knuckles! He got his soul stolen, too!" Tails now shouted back.

"We found your doll lying on the ground miles away from Knuckles' body!" Sonic retorted. "How could it have possibly stolen his soul from that far away, Tails? Admit it, you're just makin' up this whole 'haunted toy doll' thing because you miss your friends just like I do! It's not healthy, Tails, and I won't let you drive yourself crazy over this!" Sonic resolved as he got close to the point of needing to resort to harsh love to return Tails' mind from its frenzied state.

"The doll can follow me around the house, Sonic! What's to say that after it killed Knuckles it didn't just float off to keep the body hidden! Remember my strange pains when we got close to the woods where Knuckles was?" Tails kept on connecting the dots as the whole picture finally came into view for him. Sonic, on the other hand, was completely astounded and confused at his little brother's erratic behavior and outrageous claims.

"Snap out of it, Tails!" Sonic shouted as he finally reached his wit's end with the current conversation. "The only thing I think is possessed around here is you!"

Tails was noticeably stunned by this last remark as he recoiled protectively from Sonic's verbal assault. "You… you don't believe me, do you, Sonic? You think that I'm going crazy, right?" Tails tentatively asked as the young fox felt tears forming in his eyes at the feeling of betrayal from his big brother's lack of trust in him.

Sonic sighed as he calmed down before responding. "Look, bud, there's no one in this whole wide world that I trust more than you, but, a haunted doll that kills people by stealing their souls? Come on, even you gotta admit that that's quite a stretch, bro," Sonic calmly explained.

"But, it's the only thing that makes sense, Sonic!" Tails pleaded yet again.

"OK, OK, little bro! Chill for just a minute, will ya?" Sonic calmed Tails down before their previous conversation started all over again. "OK, say that your right and that doll ya hacked up really was haunted and stealin' people's souls," Sonic entertained the notion hypothetically to satisfy Tails and make a point, "How come, then, it hasn't stolen my or your souls yet? We've been around it much more than anyone else, but we're both still fine," Sonic made the valid point.

"That's the part that I don't understand, Sonic," Tails inquisitively answered as he rubbed his chin with one of his hands in his typical thinking pose. "The doll never seemed to attack anyone whenever I was close by. It also looked a lot like me, too, so it has to share some kind of connection with me, but I don't know what that is."

Sonic's heart sank as his anger rose again at Tails' response. No matter what the blue hedgehog tried to do to convince or refute to Tails that the 'haunted doll' never existed, the super smart fox always had a somewhat logical response that negated Sonic's argument entirely. Defeated at last and now more worried than ever for his little bro's safety, Sonic decided that it was time for him to get help and take drastic action. "OK, Tails. Come follow me upstairs real quick, 'kay?" Sonic implemented his plan to save his little brother from himself and letting what the blue hedgehog thought was delusions born from grief rule his gifted mind for the rest of his life.

Tails followed Sonic obediently to his room upstairs and, upon a gesture from Sonic, sat down on his own bed while Sonic stood in the doorway, still holding Cheese. After the young fox got settled back on his bed and began to wonder what Sonic was planning, Sonic finally spoke again.

"OK, here's the deal, Tails," Sonic began as he remained in the open doorway, blocking Tails' only route of escape at the moment. "You clearly need some professional help here before ya go and ruin that talented brain of yours over the death of a few of your friends. Bad things happen sometimes, bud, and, even though it may not be easy to admit, people we care about die. I've tried my best to help ya come to terms with that, but you know that I'm not really the emotional type, which isn't to say that their deaths don't affect me too, bro!" Sonic bore his soul to Tails in a last ditch effort to force or shame the delusional fox to a revelation of reality.

Seeing, though, that his final effort seemed to have no effect, Sonic unwillingly continued with his plan. "I don't know what's happenin' to ya, bro, but your mind is screwed up every which way but Thursday! Until I can get ya some real help, I'm takin' Cheese here to Amy's where it's a little safer," Sonic gave his verdict and sentence to the fox as it hurt him to have to be so rough to his little bro after all he had already been through lately.

"But, Sonic! I thought you believed me!" Tails almost screamed as tears began forming rapidly at the feeling of being betrayed by the person who was supposed to know him best.

"I do believe ya, bud, but right now your mind is obviously all messed up and confused so ya don't even know what you're talkin' about anymore," Sonic tried to placate the emotional fox. "I really care about ya, Tails, which is why I've gotta do this for your own good. You are gonna stay right here until I come back, and, then, we are both gonna take a quick run into the city to see a professional, 'kay?" Sonic made his intentions and feelings known to the now heartbroken fox.

Tails didn't even nod his head in assent or refusal as he broke down in tears on his bed at the overwhelming despair of Sonic not trusting him when he needed it most. The sight of his little brother reduced to sobs on the sheets of his bed hurt Sonic more deeply than anyone could have probably ever known, but he was convinced that it was either this or watch Tails slowly slip into madness as the blue hedgehog regrettably shut and locked the door behind him. Continuing downstairs with all the stiffness of a concrete wall, Sonic ignored the mess Tails had created from the mutilated remains of the former doll of himself for now. Ensuring that Cheese was still cradled tightly against his body, Sonic opened the front door and dashed off after ensuring that it closed securely behind him.

* * *

Tails obediently remained on his bed even as he heard the door close and knew that Sonic was now gone. He didn't think about trying to escape or even move around his own room as all the young kit wanted to do now was cry. Burying his face into his pillow, Tails simply let loose with another torrent of tears to rival that of last night. It was all just too much for the kit. First that doll scaring him to death all the time, then the death of three people that he knew really well, and now Sonic thought that he was going insane! Not even knowing where to start to improve his current situation, either, Tails felt completely and totally lost in his own emotions. The only thing he knew anymore was that he wanted to cry, and so he did.

_Why doesn't Sonic believe me? It all makes sense! That doll was behind everything, I know it! At least now it will never hurt anyone else again, but why won't Sonic trust me? _Tails thought in his mind over and over as he wracked his brain for some method to prove his sanity to Sonic and still tell him the truth about that doll. Unfortunately, Tails quickly realized that he could never do both since Sonic simply would not hear of it.

_Maybe I am going crazy,_ Tails finally thought to himself after he managed to quell the stream of tears that had already soaked his pillow and slowly sat back up on his bed. _Maybe Sonic is right. A haunted doll that steals people's souls? What was I thinking! Sonic has to be right; I'm just imagining things because of all the stress I've had lately. But I could have sworn that there is a connection between that hideous doll and those murders! How could it just be coincidence that it was there when all three deaths occurred? Then again, it could just as easily all be a coincidence, too, so… Arrgghh!_ Tails tried to reason things out in his mind, only to be rewarded by an immense headache to top off his list of recent unpleasant things that had happened to him.

Finally, Tails had enough of the mind games and the second guessing as he balled his hands into fists and drove them suddenly onto the mattress of his bed in anger. _OK, that's enough! If I keep thinking like this I really AM going to go crazy! The best thing to do right now is to just forget all about that old doll. It's destroyed now and gone for good, whether it was haunted or not. When Sonic comes back, I'll just tell him that I'm sorry and that I don't know what came over me, and everything will be fine again. At least, as much as it can be without Cream, Mrs. Vanilla, and Knuckles… _Tails gloomily resolved. Just then, however, Tails heard a noise downstairs from the front door opening again.

_Sonic's back already?_ Tails curiously wondered as he realized that the blue hedgehog had hardly been gone for more than a few minutes, more than enough time for Sonic to run there and back, of course, but hardly long enough to tell Amy what was happening and give her Cheese to take care of. Hearing the footsteps moving around downstairs, Tails quickly started to develop goose bumps as something told him that the current intruder in his home wasn't Sonic. Deciding that he needed to find out who it was and what they were doing, Tails quietly walked over to his door and tried to open it, only to discover that Sonic had locked it from the outside to keep Tails safely contained during his mental episode. Thinking on his feet like he did best, Tails quickly glanced around the room to find some item he could use to pick the lock and escape before the stranger found the trapped fox. But, it was already too late, and Tails was frozen stiff seconds later as he heard the footsteps come up the stairs to the second floor and stop right in front of his door. He gulped as the doorknob to his room slowly began to turn, and he heard the locking mechanism disengage, eliminating Tails' last line of defense from whoever was about to come through that door.

Suddenly, the door was thrown open with a sizable amount of force as an unfamiliar figure took a couple steps into the room to stand over the cowering fox who had just leapt out of his fur for the second time today. The stranger at first seemed to Tails to be his big brother, Sonic, but quickly the fox realized that this person was a different hedgehog entirely. Instead of a blue color with a tan chest, muzzle, and arms like Sonic, he was almost completely jet black with a white patch on his chest and red highlights on his quills which stood up behind his head in a completely different style than Sonic's did. If Tails were to describe this new stranger in one word at that very moment, it would undoubtedly have been 'unfriendly' due to the way he carried himself and gazed at him now. Just seeing this intruder staring at him scared Tails to the point of trembling as the yellow fox instinctively backed away until his own bed halted his retreat. "Who… who are you?!" Tails stammered as he focused on gathering his scattered wits to confront the new threat.

"You can call me Shadow, but I didn't come here to play the name game," the dark hedgehog immediately answered in a voice that fit his unfriendly appearance perfectly. "You've unleashed a dangerous threat on us all, and I'm here to seal it away again. Now, give me the chest you found that doll in," Shadow demanded in an all business attitude as he continued staring at the frightened fox before him.

Tails was stunned to say the least by Shadow's demand. "How… How did you know about that?" Tails' curiosity won out over his fear as he asked.

"The doll was easy since I've been following you around ever since you found it, and the chest I knew about because I have sources," Shadow quickly explained without his voice shifting whatsoever in response. "Now, give me that chest."

"Wait a minute! You've been following me and Sonic around, even yesterday?! But, that means that you know what happened to Mrs. Vanilla and Cream!" Tails exclaimed as his quick mind caught on to the obscure fact instantly. "What happened to them? Did you kill them?!" Tails now started to shout as he demanded answers, especially since he didn't have a very hard time believing that the dark hedgehog standing before him could have been a murderer.

"If anyone killed them, it was YOU!" Shadow now yelled at Tails as it became obvious that he was very unhappy with Tails for some reason. "You let it out, and then you had the bright idea to carry it around with you and leave it places so that it could devour your friends' souls! I'm here to clean up **your** mistake before it kills us all! Now, where is that chest?!" Shadow's small supply of patience inevitably ran out as it could be obviously noted that he was already on a short fuse to begin with.

Tails was terrified again by the vicious outburst and tried to turn and run. Unfortunately, he was backed up against the foot of his bed already, so he only succeeded in tripping on the footboard and tumbling to his mattress in a clumsy face-plant. Quickly rolling over to keep Shadow in his sight unless the black hedgehog tried to attack him, Tails let his eyes wander over to his closet door where the box he had first found the strange doll in was still located.

Shadow saw this subtle tell, but he had no intentions of going through Tails' closet to find the chest himself. "Get it, now!" Shadow demanded as he stared at Tails and pointed to the kit's closet.

Realizing that the only way to keep this stranger from getting violent was to do as he said, Tails immediately hopped out of his bed and dashed over to his closet. Thanks to his extensive cleaning of it just the other day when he found the strange chest in the first place, Tails didn't have to waste a second before he lifted the eerily ornamented box out of his closet and showed it to Shadow.

Shadow, on his part, immediately snatched the chest from Tails as soon as the fox held it out to him. Then, without a word in response, the ebony hedgehog turned to leave. Tails, however, was far too curious still to just let him go. Sensing that Shadow knew much more about recent events than he had already said, Tails asked him one more question, "But, why do you need that chest so bad? It's not like it's imp…" Tails' words were cut short as Shadow turned around swiftly just before leaving the room.

"You still don't get it, do you fox-boy?" Shadow spoke up in a voice of annoyance and barely controlled anger. "You are the one who killed those rabbits and that dense echidna friend of yours because you let out this!" Shadow then immediately produced from his other, concealed hand the whole and undamaged look-a-like doll of Tails that he had destroyed just minutes ago.

Tails' eyes got as wide as saucers as he saw the complete form of the Tails Doll yet again, without so much as a tear evident from his earlier reduction of the doll to little shreds. "No, that can't be real! I… I destroyed that thing just a couple minutes ago! It's in pieces all over the floor! How could it…" Tails began speaking frantically as the fox also started to hyperventilate at the impossible sight right before his eyes.

"You chopped it into pieces? Really?" Shadow seemed amused to hear this news as it became evident to Tails that the doll must have been whole when the dark hedgehog first came in less than a minute ago. However, the amused smirk faded quickly as Shadow again addressed Tails in a gruff manner. "Know this, fox-boy, no one can ever truly destroy the Tails Doll, which is why no one should ever let it out!" Shadow reprimanded Tails as he stuffed the doll into the sinisterly decorated box and closed the lid tightly shut.

"But… I don't even know how it got here!" Tails defended himself as he now got confirmation that his earlier beliefs about the doll had been all too accurate.

"You think that that matters now?!" Shadow responded as he glared at Tails. "Whether you knew about it or not, their deaths are on your hands, now!" he pointed at Tails and gave him the blame for his own friend's deaths due to his negligence with the Tails Doll.

Tails grabbed his head as his mind pulsed with pain as the chaos Tails had tried to dismiss earlier as nonsense now came back again. Overwhelmed with the truth so soon after he had just convinced himself that it wasn't actually true, Tails found everything both making sense and being completely illogical all at the same time. He let out an anguished yell as he walked back over to his bed and collapsed beside it with his head in his hands and his tails quickly forming and untying giant furry knots in the air as Tails tried to make sense of the flood of conflicting emotions now running rampant in his mind. Had he killed them? Was he the one to blame? How could he have know the doll was possessed and evil? Was it really? Who should he trust? Was he just crazy? Tails began pulling on the fur in the back of his head as a seemingly infinite number of difficult questions all bombarded him at once, leaved the kit much more than just simply overwhelmed as he felt tears begin forming again in his eyes at the sensation.

Shadow closed his eyes for a second in pity for the suffering fox before again rapidly turning around and dashing straight out of the house with the strange chest in tow and the Tails Doll safely inside. _If that kid was right, then this thing was in a million pieces just minutes before I walked in. How could it reform itself so quickly? It was just sitting there when I saw it. Maybe Doctor Eggman will have some answers for me. _With that to motivate him, Shadow continued full speed on a course for Eggman's new base where the good Doctor awaited him. _Poor kid. He'll get over it, though. He deserved to know the truth, even if it hurts._ Glancing down at the chest he now carried with him, Shadow let out a short sigh. _At least it's all over now._

* * *

Sonic arrived back home just about ten minutes later and immediately noticed upon his return that the front door wasn't closed tightly like he had left it. _Oh no! Tails, buddy, please still be here!_ Sonic worried as he rushed in, frightened that Tails may now be on the loose and mentally unstable at the same time. He noticed that the mess from the ripped up doll that had been there earlier was completely gone, with not a single piece of fluff or shred of fabric remaining, which told him that Tails had definitely slipped the lock to his door so that he could come down here to clean it up. Only his little brother would be so meticulous. He had to find Tails now. Although Sonic now worried extensively that Tails might be down in his workshop preparing to take off in the Tornado or do who knows what with his myriad of dangerous hardware tools, the blue hedgehog quickly resolved to check the fox's room first.

"Tails?!" Sonic shouted as he ran upstairs and almost beat his own voice to the open door of his brother's bedroom. To his relief, Sonic immediately spotted Tails kneeling beside his bed with his face straight down into his covers crying. "Tails, buddy, what's goin' on here?" Sonic asked as he implied the reason for the fox's current tears and the signs that he had clearly been out of his room while Sonic was gone.

"I… I killed Cream!" Tails shouted through his rapid sobs after Sonic walked up and placed a reassuring hand on Tails back.

"WHAT?! Whoa, hold on there, bro! Don't go sayin' stuff like that! We both know that ya didn't kill anyone!" Sonic quickly objected as he now grew even more worried that leaving Tails here alone for a while had only made him worse.

"But… I did, Sonic!" Tails yelled through his tears as he tried to turn his head to face Sonic's. "I'm the reason Mrs. Vanilla and Knuckles are dead, too!" he continued on while his tears only intensified despite Sonic's soothing touch.

"Look, bro, I don't understand what 'cha mean by all this…" Sonic tried to calm the distraught fox as he wondered just how in the world Tails could have snapped like this on him without the blue hedgehog knowing.

"The doll, Sonic! That Tails Doll killed them, and I'm the one who set it free!" Tails shouted to Sonic as he lunged forward and grabbed the hedgehog's midsection in a tight hug while the kit buried his face into Sonic's short fur.

Sonic, in response to this sudden move, didn't speak for a second as he wondered what to do. More than anything, Sonic wished that situations like this came with instruction manuals on how to deal with them as he imagined that his mind was just about as lost as Tails', but he knew deep down that what Tails needed right now was just comfort. Following his impulse, even though Sonic traditionally despised such acts, the blue hedgehog gently wrapped both his hands around Tails as the fox cried into his chest and squeezed the young kitsune loosely to his body in a bear hug. "Look, Tails, now I don't know what on Mobius is wrong with ya right now or why you're sayin' such kooky stuff, but there's no such thing as possessed dolls, bud," Sonic tried to reassure his little brother yet again.

"But, Sonic, it's true! Shadow told me so!" Tails blurted out as he raised his head out of Sonic's chest to make his words audible.

"Shadow? Who's Shadow, little bro?" Sonic immediately inquired.

"He's a hedgehog just like you, only he's mostly black instead and not very friendly," Tails quickly described the earlier intruder. "He said that he's been following us around and that the weird doll I found really is what has been killing people!"

"Right, and tell me more about this 'Shadow' character," Sonic spoke as he failed to take all the sarcasm out of his voice.

"I… I don't remember any more than that, except that he ran away almost as fast as you can, and he took the doll with him," Tails spoke as he prayed that Sonic would believe him.

"Bro, no one can move as fast as I can, and you know it," Sonic semi-pridefully remarked. "And besides, you sliced that doll into tiny pieces earlier," Sonic also pointed out.

"I know, Sonic, but it fixed itself! All the little pieces must have come back together after you left and while I was locked in my room!" Tails outlined the ridiculous, but only possible, timeline.

Sonic, however, didn't buy it. In his mind, what had started as an innocent and stress-born fear of a ghost that didn't exist had now evolved into a regenerating, soul-sucking, demon-possessed puppet that Tails now claimed total responsibility for unleashing upon the world, as told by some mysterious stranger that looked and ran just like him called Shadow. Sonic's heart sank to the souls of his super-quick feet as he now wondered if Tails had officially gone insane or if he would ever have his old buddy back again. Realizing that there was nothing he could do for Tails beyond what he had already planned, Sonic begrudgingly released his grip on Tails and stood back up while motioning for the fox to do the same. "OK, bud. Remember what I told ya we would do once I got back from Amy's? Let's get ready and head out, 'kay?" Sonic asked Tails in his calmest voice possible as not to alarm the unstable kit any further.

"I don't need to see a psychiatrist, Sonic!" Tails quickly rebelled. "I'm perfectly fine! You gotta believe me; this is serious!" he pleaded once more with Sonic.

Sonic wanted more than anything to give in and simply tell Tails that he really did believe him, but to falsely admit that now might doom the fox to madness for the rest of eternity, or so the hedgehog thought. As much as it pained him, and Tails no doubt, Sonic shook his head side-to-side in disapproval at Tails outburst. "Bro, you know that I care for ya more than any other person on this world, but I just don't buy this whole soul-eating, demonic doll thing for one second! Now come on, let's go see a doctor just to make sure that you're OK, bro," Sonic offered.

"But I'm not crazy!" Tails protested loudly as the very volume and ferocity with which Tails yelled this only served to possibly lend more evidence to the converse being true.

"Look, bud, if you're really not crazy, then the doc can tell us that, and, **then**, I might start to believe ya," Sonic made the deal with Tails to get him to agree to seeing a professional without Sonic needing to physically carry him there against his will.

Tails still seemed deeply hurt that Sonic would insist on such a radical test before trusting him, but decided that since he really wasn't crazy that he had nothing to lose by proving it in whatever means necessary. "OK, fine then," Tails at last consented with a downcast face. "I'll go fire up the Tornado," the fox mentioned as he began to walk downstairs.

Sonic intercepted him at the bottom, however, and restrained Tails with a simple hand to his shoulder. "Ya know, bud, it's a beautiful day outside. How's about we just run there together? It will be good for ya to get some exercise, ya know," Sonic tried to prevent the unpredictable and still highly emotional fox from getting in the cockpit at this time.

Tails immediately picked up on this real reason Sonic preferred not to fly to the city this time, and only sighed as he realized just how skeptical Sonic really was of him right now. However, Tails didn't take any further offense at this as he realized that he himself didn't think that he was in any condition right now to fly either and just nodded his head to accept Sonic's proposal. Together, the two Mobians left Tails' small home and began a high-speed jog towards the nearby city, Sonic noticeably keeping a watchful and concerned eye on Tails the whole way.

* * *

(The End? Oooh no, not even close! This is still just the beginning! Mweee hee hee hee hee heeee!)


	8. Chapter 8: Doctors' Orders

Things Best Forgotten

Disclaimer: You know, I seriously doubt that anyone even checks for these, if they're even still required in the first place. But, Sonic, Tails, and all other characters belong to Sonic Team and Sega, even Tails Doll if you really know your hedgehog history.

You know what I just noticed? It's been almost half a year since my last addition to this story, and it's my most popular one besides Lethal Mutation! I've gotten a lot of reviews from people begging that the story continue, too. Well, this is my time to fix all that with a no doubt **long** anticipated chapter! However, this chapter itself may not be the glorious, lengthy comeback everyone may be expecting, so please don't flame if it seems to be over too quick when you read. I will simply give my assurance that the next chapter won't take another six months to post again. XP

Chapter 8: Doctors' Orders

"I… I just can't believe it, Sonic…" Tails remarked sullenly as the two finally walked back into their shared home from their somewhat urgent trip into town today. Tails hadn't been too excited to know that he had to see a psychiatrist just to satisfy Sonic's concerned disbelief in the first place, let alone how the young fox had felt once they'd finally arrived and the session began.

First off, was how Tails had now come to understand just why everyone called doctors of that particular profession 'shrinks'. True, the pediatric psychiatrist Sonic had taken him to was a bit on the short side to begin with, but the real meaning of the derogatory nickname, Tails realized, was how they could pick apart every little detail of what you said and seem to see almost a bigger picture that left you feeling rather small once the 'shrink' revealed it to you in the form of short, seemingly profound advice that seemed equally lofty in wisdom as well. It was like they could literally shrink their patient down to a unicellular size and put them under a microscope to see every last detail of that person, or at least in the mental sense, anyways. This alone made Tails extremely nervous during the ordeal since he almost felt like he was taking a test on how well he actually knew himself and felt that somehow the psychiatrist would know if he used the wrong words to describe anything they discussed. Like how telling a doctor wrong symptoms might lead to improper prognosis and the wrong medicine for whatever illness you really had. Combine that pressure with the oddness of the situation, the unfamiliar location in one of the psychiatrist's plush offices, and Sonic's presence throughout practically the whole thing as Tails was prompted to talk about somewhat sensitive topics he and his brother may or may not have discussed in any depth before, and it was a wonder Tails had actually gone through with the whole process voluntarily instead of by physical restraint.

Of course, the worst part was at the end after all of Tails' logical and calm pleadings as to the source of all these recent events, including that same visit, being a demonic, soul devouring doll that unexplainably followed him around, when the doctor had pulled Sonic aside briefly and handed the hedgehog a slip of white paper Tails then discovered minutes later had a prescription written on it for some kind of drug he'd never even heard of before. The instructions Sonic had also been given concerning Tails' treatment were even more destructive to the young fox's horrified mind as he finally realized that he hadn't, despite telling nothing but the absolute truth, passed the psychiatrist's professional exam of his sanity, one which Tails had been completely sure he would pass since he **knew** he wasn't really crazy. It felt like he was an innocent man convicted by a jury and unable to do anything about it now but serve his undeserving sentence quietly. Now that a professional had deemed Tails mentally unstable, he knew he'd never get Sonic or anyone to believe his stories or even trust him the way they used to either. That realization was a huge bombshell to the already distraught kit, leaving him feeling almost like something **had** gone off inside him and hollowed out his insides on the run all the way home from the pharmacy with Sonic constantly attentive at his side.

"Believe what, little bro?" Sonic responded, eagerly sharing the first conversation the two had begun since the end of the psychiatric evaluation session almost half an hour ago.

"That the doctor thought I was crazy, Sonic! I'm not! I know I'm not! I can't explain why, but I just know!" Tails pleaded, knowing full well how useless the attempt would be now that Sonic had a professional's opinion to contradict the fox's frantic claims.

"Tails," Sonic sighed heavily, seeming to curse himself or anyone else he could blame as well for being in the current situation he was right now. He'd never had any reason to doubt his little brother before, and Sonic would usually be more than willing to believe anything Tails ever told him as true in a heartbeat, but now… "Tails, bud, I want nothing more than for you to be actually tellin' the truth right now, honest, but you gotta understand why I can't just trust ya without any kind of proof either. I mean, you agreed with me to see that professional and take whatever advice he gave us, and it's kinda hard to not believe someone who knows a lot more about these kind of things than either of us do, you know?" Sonic reasoned with Tails, hoping the fox might eventually understand why he was taking such drastic and hurtful measures right now with the desperate fox, and that Sonic also hated himself for every moment of it as well.

"But, Sonic…!" Tails began to protest before simply giving up on the comment before it started. He knew full well that at this point persuasion would be simply impossible with the blue hedgehog as Sonic had already hardened himself on his current position with the fox, probably reasoned away in his thick head as 'For your own good, Tails,' no doubt.

"Look, Tails, I really don't want to do this anymore! I know that you're going through something really big right now, but just try to understand what I have to do here!" Sonic snapped back, Tails' pleading finally causing him enough mental distress to register as a thumping pain in the hedgehog's skull. Instantly, however, the look of shock and sadness that he saw registering on Tails' face as a result of his short outburst made Sonic regret saying anything at all just then. "OK, Tails, look, I'm sorry," Sonic immediately spoke again in a much softer voice as he reached a hand around Tails' shoulder for the kit's comfort. "Thing's won't change because of this, bud. I'll still be right here, and I'll always trust ya no matter what, got that? Regardless of everything else, that doll's gone now for good and things can get back to normal a bit more, 'kay? You just promise me to take this medicine stuff when you're supposed to in case it helps and just stop thinking about the whole thing so much. Some things are actually best forgotten, bro," Sonic gave Tails his best reassuring talk in hopes of mending the growing strain between the two before it could get out of hand like he felt it already was.

Tails thought the offer over a bit before he accepted. After all, even though he knew he'd eventually need to compromise with Sonic somehow in order to get past this current falling out, Tails also had no intentions of agreeing to anything that would force him to admit what he knew was false either. Luckily, this was no such agreement, just a pact to forget and take only one simple measure just in case the problem really was prevalent somehow. Tails believed that the drug, most likely a depressant of some sort to get him to settle down and not drive himself mad with his raging thoughts and/or emotions, shouldn't even be necessary because he wasn't really crazy, but it also wouldn't hurt him any to still take it for Sonic's sake regardless as a small compromise. Convinced that he could live with this arrangement, Tails nodded once in approval while Sonic finally cracked a smile in satisfaction and relief while releasing his loose but cautious hold on the kit's shoulder.

"Glad that's all taken care of, then," Sonic spoke again with obvious relief in the way his stance relaxed back to how it normally was and his voice also seemed to return to its natural tone and mood. "Now, the doc said ya just needed to chill for a while, bud, so why not finish up some more of those plans for that new plane of yours while I round us up some grub, huh?" the hedgehog proposed in a helpful voice as he personally knew that he'd feel better knowing Tails was preoccupied with something other than thinking about all that had happened today and the last couple days as well.

"Yeah, a little time in the workshop couldn't hurt, I suppose," Tails agreed, now equally ambitious to get as much of this whole thing behind him as possible. The fact that Sonic still believed that he wasn't wholly mentally stable hurt only a little less after their short talk just now, but Tails at least agreed with Sonic's philosophy of just trying to ignore or forget the whole thing for the moment. It wasn't a big problem anymore for Tails how everything still didn't line up quite right even now, since the whole thing should now be in the past anyways. The sooner he forgot that stupid doll of himself, the sooner things would get better for him here. If only the same could be said for his memories of his recently lost friends, however…

"Tails? Mobius calling little bro, come in please?" Sonic spoke up worriedly as he caught the fox seeming to simply stare right through him and the wall behind the hedgehog as well. He knew that look meant that Tails was lost deep in his own thoughts now, which was precisely the last thing he felt would be good for the unstable fox at the moment and had prompted Sonic's interruption.

"Sorry, Sonic. It was just… Knuckles, Cream, Vanilla… What will it be like now without them?" Tails had to ask, despite dreading many of the possible answers that Sonic might come up with for that question.

"I'm not really sure, bud. It will be different, you know, but somehow we'll get used to it," Sonic offered his best attempt at optimistic comforting, even though his words sounded pretty hollow even to his own ears regardless.

Tails just half-nodded in response, actually taking a bit of assurance in Sonic's less than perfect consolation. "Yeah, I guess so…" Tails answered before turning to descend into his basement workshop, hoping, as Sonic also was, that some kind of manual or mental labor would chase away the feelings of pain and hurt Tails felt coming from almost countless sources at the moment. _And if all else fails, a large wrench won't be too hard to use as a sedative either, would it?_ Tails found himself thinking, and it worried him by how practical that last intended joke seemed to sound as well while he sat back down to work on the tedious planning of his new plane's wiring and lost track of everything else.

* * *

"Forgive me, officer, but I believe I have been more than cooperative in your investigation so far," the slightly elderly and bald headed man protested in a mildly annoyed tone. "You have no evidence or proof that I am in any way involved with these killings, and, I assure you, I most certainly am not! Now, if you'd be so kind as to show yourself out; I'm a very busy man, you know…"

"I'm not so easily brushed aside, Doctor," the large and imposing police chief hound that had terrorized Tails no more than a day ago answered, clearly unsatisfied with his findings still despite almost an hour of interrogation with their only real remaining lead. "Someone or something was spotted stealing the bodies of the three deceased victims from the crime scenes and running off with them into the hills. Minutes later, your giant airship takes off from those same hills and flies off without so much as a single threat or warning, which you'd customarily provide at that time as well. I may believe in coincidences, Eggman, but this stretches the imagination just a hair, wouldn't you agree? So tell me, where are the bodies?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea what you're blathering about!" Eggman immediately responded in a ploy to cover his shock at the circumstantial evidence mounted against him already. "I'm sorry, officer, but I am well aware of my rights in this situation. Unless you show me a warrant, I suggest you and your small team leave at once," the obese mastermind finally demanded.

"Very well. Good day to you, Dr. Robotnik," the chief muttered through invisibly bared teeth at his need to be so civil with someone so clearly evil and dangerous. He personally believed that Eggman, as the single largest threat to Mobius as a whole, should just be locked up on sight without even a trial or immediate good cause. However, the justice system he lived to uphold forbid such things, even in Eggman's case, leaving the officer's investigation on this end doomed to fail without enough evidence to prove the Doctor's involvement for a warrant. And the chief knew that should Eggman have earned even half of his reputation, the necessary evidence would never be found either, thereby making his only and best suspect untouchable. Slowly, he led his other two officers out the door of Eggman's newest lab without a further comment other than a barely audible low growl.

Eggman breathed a sigh of relief at the departure of the policemen from his home without incident. Normally, he wouldn't even be obliged to allow the said officers onto his property, warrant or not, simply due to his army of robotic sentries and security systems meant to stop a foe far quicker and more powerful than any police Mobian. Still, he needed to appear somewhat cooperative so as not to draw any attention to himself and had allowed the interview to take place willingly. At least, that was his plan before he found out just a second ago why the police where so interested in him now…

"I've returned, Doctor," a gruff voice seemed to materialize from the space behind Eggman's hovering chair as a somewhat familiar figure also seemed to appear from a flash of light.

"I take it you found the doll then?" Eggman quickly swiveled his chair around to address the black hedgehog standing behind him. Oddly, the Doctor seemed to sound a bit more genuinely concerned than usual at the moment upon mention of the doll.

Shadow caught the obvious hint of concern in Dr. Robotnik's voice and pondered for a moment if this doll had any special reason to frighten him more so than anyone else. _Then again, _Shadow thought in response to his own suspicions, _what being could be any more frightening then one that can steal your very soul? _Putting his questions aside without his stalwart face even revealing that he had ever had them in the first place, Shadow promptly produced the sinister-looking box which he had shut and closed the padlock back on with the demonic mannequin inside, both obtained minutes ago from Tails' house. Without a word, he passed the ghoulishly ornamented chest to Eggman so he could prove to himself it was indeed real.

"Ah, yes, yes… Oh Ho! I would recognize this box anywhere! How it escaped my possession in the first place I'll never know, but I will most assuredly not lose it again!" Eggman seemed to be on the brink of doing some kind of embarrassing happy dance as he clearly felt very glad to have back the small chest once more. His face grew very serious just a moment later however as he then returned a sharp gaze down to Shadow before asking another important question. "It is in here, Shadow, isn't it?" Eggman seemed to need concrete assurance that the closed box was occupied by what it was designed to hold.

"Of course, I locked it in there myself," Shadow confirmed, wondering if Eggman was either overly concerned or may have thought that he would try and trick the Doctor and keep the doll for himself, for whatever ludicrous reason Shadow would want a soul-stealing, demonic toy for in the first place. Which brought up the good question of why Eggman was so interested in getting this creature for himself now, too…

"Excellent. Very well done, Shadow. This should put an end to all that now for good," Eggman thanked the hedgehog while also seeming to talk just to himself at the same time.

"Pardon my asking, Doctor, but put an end to what?" Shadow no longer could hold his curiosity at the strangely acting evil genius and his equally bizarre mission which had just been completed.

"Come now, Shadow, surely you know what I was talking about," Eggman seemed to grin as he held the sinister chest in his lap with both hands. "Those mysterious killings will finally end now that I have possession of this demonic toy once more. No more collecting bodies or trying to cover things up now, Shadow. We're both home free!" Eggman spoke with a delighted laugh which only confused Shadow even more.

"So, why was I even doing those things in the first place?" Shadow again had to ask as even his cold restraints on his own curiosity had limits.

"It's a long story, Shadow, but suffice it to say that I lied to you when I said that the fox was responsible. The truth is, Tails never had any idea what this really was to begin with, something I'm sure he told you as well when you undoubtedly met each other a bit ago," Eggman confessed.

Shadow's blank expression changed during Eggman's explanation first to a look of slight shock at finding out Eggman had lied to him and caused him to yell at the already distraught fox for no reason and secondly to a small scowl as he realized that Eggman had been using him to cover up for his own dirty work the whole time. "So, you were behind this all along, and you were using me to make sure no one traced this doll back to you! Instead, you set it up to look like that fox was really to blame, is that it?" Shadow responded in a slight growl. He thought that he had finally figured it all out now, and he didn't like that he had just been Eggman's pawn in cleaning up after a supernatural killing spree he'd orchestrated to start with.

"Now, now, Shadow. I know what you're thinking about me right now, and I can assure you that you've got it all wrong. I never wanted this creature to be released ever since I found out the error of my ways in creating it," Eggman defended himself against Shadow's growing and well founded suspicions.

"Created?! You mean the Tails Doll was…" Shadow exclaimed in rare genuine surprise as his voice was soon interrupted quickly by Eggman's.

"Yes, the gem which gives the doll its power was a rare artifact I once found back on Mobius. I knew it possessed some incredible power of levitation, so I stitched together a body for it to be attached to in order to test its powers. Not my best work of art, I admit, but the crude thing did hold together in the end," Eggman explained while shrugging sheepishly at admitting the horrible stitch working was really his own pathetic attempts at non-robotic art. "However, I never realized that the gem possessed more powers beyond that of levitation, and, after I found out that the doll itself had actually become self-aware and somewhat rebellious, I stuffed the doll back in this box I'd found the gem inside to begin with and forgot about it until now," Eggman told his story of how the Tails Doll actually came to be.

"That doesn't explain how you knew it had the power to steal people's souls and sent me to capture it, Doctor," Shadow pointed out, skeptically seeing Eggman's entire story so far as being way too doubtful and coincidental.

"Ah, yes, well that, my curious friend, is because I recently came upon a translation of an ancient tablet found near the sight I recovered the gem which discussed a 'Great Evil' encapsulated within a 'Cursed Stone' that fed itself off the souls of others. So, naturally, I went to find where I'd stored that doll to make sure it was secure, but, to my dismay, over the years it had been lost somehow, in the destruction of one of my many bases, no doubt. Then reports of these strange killings got out, and I knew that somehow my creation which was possessed with this 'Great Evil' was on the loose. So, because it was too dangerous to trust any of my less than dependable robotic assistants to take care of things this time, I had to use you," Eggman finished, seeming satisfied with his explanation as he sat back with his fingers on both hands interlaced in anticipation of Shadow's response to the whole story.

"Still sounds pretty unlikely to me. So you just happened to come across that tablet recently and realized that the Tails Doll you created was actually stealing people's souls, is that right? Likely story, Doctor," Shadow answered while crossing his arms across his chest to show his unwillingness to believe Eggman's story just yet.

"Believe me or not, Shadow, what I said is still true regardless. At least now that the doll is finally secured back in its chest it can no longer harm any more people because of my mistake," Eggman finished the conversation as he maneuvered his chair to the door leading out of the room with the Tails Doll's small prison still sitting securely in his lap.

Shadow only stood rooted in place as he watched the Doctor retreat through the door and out of the room hastily. _And since when has Eggman cared about preventing harm to other people? Especially since that doll was found in the same house of his most troublesome rival as well. If he really had wanted to get rid of Sonic and that fox buddy of his, why not let the doll do so for him?_ Shadow only shook his head slowly to himself in response to these thoughts while he double checked to see that he was truly in this room alone now as an impulsive precaution. _Why should I care what goes on in Eggman's scrambled brain anyways? It's all done with now…_

One thing still bothered Shadow about this whole mess, however. For the life of him, Shadow didn't understand why Eggman had insisted on his gathering of the bodies of the Tails Doll's victims in the first place. After all, the police at the rabbit's home at least would surely have had enough time to give the bodies of Vanilla and Cream a good once over, more than enough to show that at least those two died without any sort of typical murder wounds. What else Eggman was afraid of the police finding was beyond Shadow's comprehension. Was it possible that he'd been ordered to collect the bodies of the Tails Doll's victims just so Eggman could be absolutely sure no one could ever divine the true cause of Knuckles, Vanilla, and Cream's deaths? If so, then even Shadow considered Eggman's orders to be far beyond the pale this time. Still, Shadow wouldn't put it past the evil Doctor to do just that. He of all people would know the wonders of modern technology and many of its uses in forensics as well, so it seemed the only logical reason Eggman might still insist on holding the three Mobian corpses.

Regardless, Shadow still doubted that the police had any sort of device to tell whether or not a murder victim's soul had been stolen as the cause of death, which made the Doctor's overly cautious behavior all the more difficult to support. After all, he'd never gotten to bury Maria's body after she was tragically murdered either, and to this day Shadow felt a lack of comfort from not knowing exactly what happened to his only true friend. After seeing how distraught that poor fox cub had been over the loss of **three** of his friends, Shadow believed that only the most cold-hearted monster would put Tails through the same situation he'd been through with Maria, only three times as worse. Yes, Shadow worked for Eggman for many good reasons, all of which that added up to the dark hedgehog's surprising loyalty to the evil mastermind, but that didn't mean Shadow wasn't capable of thinking and acting alone when the situation so called. Eggman may not like it, but Shadow would make sure that what happened to him with Maria wouldn't happen again to this poor fox cub. He at least owed Tails that much after blaming all their deaths on him in the first place, at Eggman's prompting though, of course. Besides, now he also needed to send a message to Eggman that he couldn't just be used to do all the evil genius's dirty work regardless of morals.

Snarling angrily to himself in a low growl of sorts, Shadow finally left the meeting room to find the cold storage unit he'd been instructed to deposit the three corpses in after the airship had landed yesterday evening. The room was in the back of a storage area which took up half or more of Eggman's actual base itself. With his speed, Shadow could be there in just a few seconds should he want to, but, as not to arouse the Doctor's suspicion, Shadow instead walked in that direction through the maze-like base as if he was simply wandering aimlessly. Of course, Shadow still made it to his destination in just a couple minutes regardless as he saw no reason to be overly cautious either.

Knowing that opening the door to the cold storage units in front of him would be logged into the security system's computer as unauthorized access and surely get Eggman's attention, Shadow took the smarter approach and used one gloved hand to wipe away the heavy condensation and frost from the small window in the large metal door to peer inside. He knew he'd been instructed to carry the bodies to the back and hide them, but still Shadow thought that it would be rather simple to spot them again since he was the one that hid those just hours ago. However, despite giving the giant, walk-in freezer several hard glances from the window, he could find no trace of the bodies he was on a personal mission to 'rescue'. "Eggman," Shadow only growled in irritation. He must have seen to it that the bodies were relocated again because of the chance that Shadow might attempt to take them back just like he was trying to now.

Shadow realized that Eggman had won this round. After all, if he suddenly showed up so soon asking where the bodies had been moved to, Eggman would know his intentions to steal them back in an instant and refuse to tell him their location. Searching Eggman's extensive base for their new hiding place would also undoubtedly bring up an alarm to the wily Doctor. No, Shadow's only safe bet now would be to simply wait until his chance to learn about the three corpses' locations and then retrieve them quickly once he did. It wasn't like they were going anywhere on their own anytime soon either…


	9. Chapter 9: Playful Vengeance

Things Best Forgotten

Disclaim-Oh, what's the point... If you think I actually own these characters and not Sega, please remind yourself what site this story is on, OK?

Another long wait between chapters that I must apologize for, but, sadly, the excuse remains the same as my last major occurrence of writer's block. For those of you who may have not known, which, this being the Internet where hundreds of people will probably read this by the end of the month makes it very difficult for anyone reading this to already have known, I lost my best friend about a month ago. He'd been living with muscular dystrophy, a truly remorseless and debilitating condition, and simply died in his sleep as I and his sister tried to wake him up one morning. This being my second major loss since my father also passed away in February of this year, I hope it's understandable that my additions to this and other stories are rather delayed.

At any case, the world still turns and here I am finally with this new chapter for all of you to read and enjoy. If you can't tell, the story itself is getting rather close to its inevitable climax point, so now is when the really good stuff and action begins to come into play! So, read, review, enjoy... Whatever you feel like. Just don't pour brown gravy all over your monitor if you hate it. I don't know why, but something just tells me that it would be a bad idea...

Chapter 9: Playful Vengeance

"Tails? Hey, bro, time for some grub! Come on upstairs!" Sonic shouted down into the underground workshop that his brother had been in ever since returning from town earlier. He was rather tempted to go down and bring the fox up himself since he didn't know what state Tails might be in at the moment alone in his workshop after the events of today. Still, he wanted to show Tails he still trusted the mentally unstable fox by not seeming to watch over him every minute like Sonic would probably have felt better to be doing now. It was a strange situation; Sonic needing to balance his concern for Tails' well being with the fox's own need to feel like he wasn't being treated like someone that needed constant supervision, and Sonic now unwillingly had found himself in the middle of it.

Luckily, Sonic's restraint was well rewarded as the fox in question soon appeared at the top of the stairs without even the need to ask twice. "What's for dinner?" Tails inquired in a flat voice, it being seemingly impossible for him to be enthusiastic about anything right now. Sonic couldn't necessarily blame him, though; as the hedgehog anticipated that he would be rather hard to please after a day like today as well.

"I know we already had some this week, bud, but I made chili dogs just the way you like them to try and cheer ya up," Sonic answered while setting a plate of steaming hot chili dogs in front of Tails' spot at the dinner table and motioning for the fox to sit.

Tails obliged to Sonic's unspoken request willingly as the hedgehog then brought a couple sodas to the table for them, as well as some chili dogs for himself, before sitting down across from the fox to eat. Even as Sonic took his first large bite out of his first chili dog, however, he could tell that something was wrong with Tails by the fact that his brother had yet to even touch his favorite food right in front of him. A chili dog placed in front of Tails usually had a life expectancy measured in nanoseconds, so the fact that his little brother had yet to even begin to taste the delicious meal sent a large warning sign to Sonic immediately.

"What's the matter, little bro? Do they look like I didn't cook 'em long enough?" Sonic asked as he wondered just how upset Tails would have to be to refuse a perfectly well made chili dog.

"It's fine, Sonic. I'm just… not hungry," Tails spoke as he poked the bun of one of his chili dogs with a finger idly.

"Come on, Tails, don't think I don't know ya better than that. You'd eat chili dogs all day long if we had enough of 'em," Sonic exposed his brother's obvious lie, especially since the hedgehog knew for a fact that Tails had to be hungry after going since the run back from town till now without any food.

Tails never responded, though, as the fox then poked one of his white gloved fingers into the almost overflowing chili sauce on top of the homemade chili dogs, removed it slowly, and licked his finger clean. Never, though, did Tails give any indication that he was actually going to eat more of the chili dogs themselves.

"I also think I saw some mint candy in there from the store the other day we might have for dessert," Sonic added more appeal to the fox's appetite by mentioning the one thing he loved more than chili dogs.

"No thanks, Sonic," Tails replied gloomily instead while shoving his full plate of practically untouched chili dogs away from himself to the center of the table.

"You sure, buddy? It's not every day you get a meal as special as this, you know," Sonic tried one last time to reason with the fox as he felt greatly surprised that his promise of mint candy on top of a chili dog supper was still not enough to get Tails to eat. The Tails Sonic knew so well would never have passed up a deal like that in a million years, which told Sonic that much more was going on right now than simply a lack of hunger on the fox's part.

"I know. Thanks anyways, though, Sonic," Tails responded as he then wasted no time in getting back up from the table and beginning to walk off.

Sonic saw this and immediately dropped his half finished chili dog onto his own plate to enable him to confront the strangely acting fox without any distractions. "Just where do ya think you're goin', buddy?" Sonic asked Tails' retreating back in a tone that made the question clearly not a threat and, rather, a genuine concern.

"Back to my workshop. I've got a lot more work to do on those blueprints for the new Tornado, you know," Tails informed Sonic while he kept walking slowly towards the stairs leading to his basement workshop/hangar area.

This was the final straw for Sonic, however, as he refused to let the fox escape like this without so much as an explanation for why he was acting so strangely and uninterested now. "I don't think so, Tails. You and me need to have a talk about what's buggin' you right now before I'll let ya go back to working on your plane," Sonic demanded while he used his super speed to place himself in front of the door leading to Tails' workshop faster than Tails could reach it himself.

"What's bothering me? You want to know what's wrong with me?" Tails gave the hypothetical questions as he worked up the strength to say what he thought the well-meaning hedgehog still didn't seem to get. "Here's what's the matter with me, Sonic! I've been having horrible nightmares lately, half my friends I've ever known are now dead, I was blamed for it and would have gotten arrested unless they'd have found out the truth when they did, a cursed doll in the shape of me is the real one killing everyone and might still be out there, and now you think that I've lost my mind according to some psychiatrist! Well, Sonic, I'm just about one more second or strange sighting of you, only in black, from **actually** losing my mind now, and you simply want me to forget about all of it and eat my supper like a good little kit?! I know you're trying to cheer me up, but do me a favor and just… **Don't!!**" Tails shouted as the extremely upset fox dashed upstairs to his room since the path to his workshop was now blocked.

Sonic more felt than heard the door to Tails' upstairs room slam shut as the noise of wood half-splintering and a door hinge give way accompanied the enormous bang. Now alone downstairs, Sonic realized that he'd really blown it this time. If only he could figure out how he'd done it, though… Everything he'd done for Tails in the last couple days was always to help comfort or assist the fox as best Sonic felt he could, so how nothing but the best intentions and seemingly good deeds had earned this sort of behavior from his little brother towards him Sonic simply couldn't fathom. Sonic sighed as he sat down again at the table and stared down at his own barely started plate of chili dogs. He'd known that from day one he doubted his ability to watch over Tails, to provide the fox with everything the younger cub would need from a parent or older brother, but it was times like this when he was proven right and had no clue on what to do or say that caused Sonic to be harshest on himself for the pain Tails obviously felt.

In his vision's aimless wandering around the kitchen from the table, Sonic spotted something out of place on the counter separating this room from the small living room beyond. Stopping to look closely at it for a second, Sonic recognized the small cylindrical bottle sitting on the counter, Tails' medicine. Picking it up, Sonic remembered the psychiatrist's private conversation with him earlier in which he'd warned about the fox's likely unpredictable attitude which the medicine now in Sonic's hands was supposedly designed to help curb somewhat.

Sonic almost felt sick as he realized he now needed to depend on a pill to make his little brother happy. How could he have been Tails' big brother and still let it come to this point? Hadn't he tried his best to comfort the fox and be reasonable with him the last few days? What could he have done better to keep Tails from being in the state he was now? Was there anything he could have done at all? Shaking aside the painful self-interrogation Sonic now put himself through in his mind, the hedgehog slowly advanced up the stairs to the door leading into Tails' room. He would have knocked, but the door was broken from the vicious slam Tails had dealt it seconds ago and stood only half connected to its frame as Sonic instead carefully pulled the door open as not to have it come falling on top of himself in the process.

"Go away, Sonic," a muffled kit's voice greeted him from the bed immediately in front of Sonic as Tails' head was now buried in his pillows so only the tips of his large triangular ears still protruded slightly.

Sonic resolved not to give in so easily, however. "Look, bud, I really don't know what to say to ya right now, but I want to help with whatever it is you're goin' through," Sonic spoke sincerely to the obviously crying fox that was pretending not to listen. "I know you probably don't need these, and I really hope that's true, Tails, but would ya maybe take some of this medicine stuff now, for me?" Sonic requested after a long pause with no response to his first statement.

"So that's it, then? You came up here to tell me to take some magic pill that will solve all my problems?!" Tails shouted as a mildly enraged vulpine's face quickly shot out at Sonic through the pillows.

"No, Tails! I came up here because something's wrong with my little bro, and… **and** **I don't know how to make it any better!**" Sonic shouted back himself as he simply couldn't handle the situation any longer. Unfortunately, any further words failed him even as Sonic knew that he needed to follow his outburst up with something more if he hoped to break through to Tails. Thus unable to speak and extremely frustrated, Sonic simply tossed the bottle of pills onto the floor at the foot of Tails' bed and walked out. He had wanted to say something to Tails about how much he cared, something he knew the fox might later call rather mushy coming from him, but Sonic was simply too confused himself to do so at the moment. Forgetting the chili dogs still uneaten on the downstairs table, Sonic exited the house to run around the Mystic Ruins a few times, the only thing that ever calmed him down best when he got this flustered.

Tails' expression of anger changed instantly as Sonic left and he heard the front door slam closed behind the blue hedgehog. Sonic might not have handled the situation very well or said what he needed to, but Tails had gotten from his frustration what Sonic had really meant to portray to the fox all along. Sonic was hurting maybe just as bad by seeing him feel this way as Tails actually felt himself. Regretting his treatment of his big brother a second ago, Tails felt a gnawing pit of guilt as the ears on his head slowly drooped until they were laying almost flat on the top of his head in his renewed sorrow. Sonic had only been trying to help the whole time. He'd known it all along, but Tails had still made him to be the enemy because he believed what that psychiatrist had said over his own word. Despite Sonic only wanting the best for him, Tails still had let himself feel betrayed by his older brother and had lashed out at him in anger which Sonic never did anything to deserve. Now faced with this new guilt, Tails quickly found that being alone wasn't really what he'd wanted just now as he felt worse than ever due to the addition of the most recent events.

Minutes passed, and Tails' downcast gaze eventually settled on the medicine Sonic had discarded laying nearby. A strange impulse told Tails to pick the small bottle up, and the kit slowly raised it to his eyes in curiosity. Not sure what he was doing or what to do in his strange mood of inactivity, Tails found himself reading aloud from the label encompassing the bottle. "May cause drowsiness, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue…" Tails mumbled senselessly as he felt like simply doing the action would mean something at the moment.

Eventually, Tails got up and progressed slowly downstairs to the kitchen where supper was still laying out and getting a little cold by now. Tails didn't mind, however, as the fox finally took hold of one of his chili dogs and began munching slowly on the favorite treat. After finishing the first one and his hungry stomach finally starting to show that it was approving of the meal Tails had refused earlier, he then opened the bottle of pills and shook out one of the colored tablets. He still didn't feel like taking the medicine, but, after the way he'd treated Sonic earlier, Tails resolved that his mood really did need some drastic changing, psychotic episode or not. Placing it in his mouth and downing the pill with some warm cola, Tails then proceeded to finish his meal in a strange solitude.

* * *

Shadow was biding his time now, leaning with his eyes closed against the window in the observatory tower in Eggman's current active base, his personal mission to retrieve the corpses of the three soulless Mobians he'd originally been sent to gather in the first place having run into a major snag. The only way to know now where the bodies had been relocated was through Eggman, but asking him directly would raise far too much suspicion. As it stood, even Shadow, the self acclaimed 'Ultimate Lifeform', couldn't as of yet find a solution to his current conundrum, barring the fact that he'd seen fit so far as to obtain a certain item as an insurance policy of sorts.

His eyes shot open instantly as the elevator doors to the large observation tower suddenly opened with a mechanical hiss. As if on a cue from Shadow's own contemplations, Eggman's chair slowly hovered in sporting its usual rider. An unconscious warning went off in Shadow's mind as he felt uncomfortable in Eggman having come to him this time rather than his usual summons through a communicator of some sorts. If he was concerned, though, Shadow's expression never showed it as he uncrossed his legs and stood erect while greeting the obese visitor. "Greetings, Doctor. You were looking for me?" Shadow asked in his normal, somewhat unfriendly tone as he already knew that Eggman wouldn't be up here for just the view.

"Shadow…" Eggman responded in a lower than comfortable voice. Already, Shadow's mind read the Doctor's blank expression and strange greeting as another major warning. _Could he suspect my intentions already?_ Shadow thought as his mind quickly kicked into full alert. He still never allowed that to show on his outward features, however, as Shadow could have very nearly been the original author of how to 'play it cool'.

"You needed something?" Shadow responded again in his usual cold tone while his eyes and ears closely monitored the man's reaction.

"You, Shadow… I came for you," Eggman spoke again. Something was clearly off about the evil genius's actions so far, though. His words were soft and not in his typical voice, and his facial features seemed frozen like the rest of his body in a clearly unnatural manner.

Shadow noticed all this and wondered if it would be prudent for him to make his observations known. Eggman had surely never acted this way before, which sent Shadow a message that nothing of the ordinary would come out of this conversation by the time it was finished. "And?" Shadow answered Eggman's statement, feigning a hint of impatience in his voice that would normally arise from any normal one-sided conversation he was in.

"Join me… Join us," Eggman spoke eerily as if he had been transformed into one of the robots he spent so much time working on. It became glaringly apparent that something far from Eggman confronting Shadow about his intentions concerning the corpses of Vanilla, Cream, and Knuckles was taking place. If he'd been anyone else, even, Shadow was sure he'd have felt a twinge of fear growing inside himself.

That's when the elevator doors opened yet again, and the corpses in question stepped out to array themselves beside Eggman, cutting off Shadow's access to the only escape from the room. Shadow finally showed surprise on his face as he backpedaled a half step at this unexpected revelation. Playing it cool was out the window now as Shadow took a ready stance. He didn't know what was going on here, but if he had to fight through these supposed to be deceased Mobians to get out of here alive, Shadow wouldn't hesitate.

While his body was ready for action, however, Shadow's mind now raced to catch up with him. Unable to find any sense in what was happening whatsoever, Shadow's curiosity prompted an outburst. "What's going on here?!" Shadow shouted with a growl, suspecting that someone or something could hear him which would answer that question.

"Mweeee hee hee hee! Your master simply has opened Pandora's box, Shadow. Isn't it good to know that he trusted you so well when you assured him I was in there?" a creepy child's voice called out from behind the four zombie-like figures.

Shadow may not have recognized the voice, but realization dawned nonetheless as he finally began to comprehend the danger he was in. "You! If you wanted my soul, then why didn't you take it when I carried you from Tails' house?" Shadow questioned as he understood full well who, or rather what, he now addressed.

Also understanding that further deception and hiding was unnecessary, the Tails Doll produced itself floating above the group of reanimated beings blocking Shadow in. "I was locked in my box, don't you recall? A small, dark prison… No sunlight. No companions. A prison created to keep me for all eternity, forever sealed off from your world. Now freed, your souls shall all be mine, just like these minions before me now," the Tails Doll spoke, its voice changing emotions from solemn and remorseful to vindictive and childish with no discernable transitions between the two mood swings. "Curiosity, it seems, can kill far more than just cats!" it added with a vindictive laugh as it only had that one impulse to thank for its freedom yet again at the hands of his once called creator.

Shadow finally understood now. Eggman had met the same fate as Knuckles, Vanilla, and Cream. Their souls were now captured by this doll's evil, leaving only the bodies of the once living beings, which the Tails Doll apparently seemed to be capable of commanding as well. A lightning quick assessment of his current predicament told Shadow what should be done next. At this point, his only concern could be survival. Shadow needed to run, escape, get to someone with this information before he too could be claimed by this maniacal doll. Shadow knew it would be easier said than done.

"Oh, Shadow… Even you are so predictable in your feelings, just like all these other mortals," the Tails Doll spoke before Shadow could act on his resolve to flee. "You are right not to try and match me in a fight, but why must you creatures always try to run? You especially show very little fear even now, but still you focus on escape! Why not offer yourself up freely? Why drag on and resist with the vain hope that somehow I can be beaten? Do you so easily forget that I am immortal, and therefore cannot die?" the doll questioned philosophically to the trapped hedgehog, its childish and creepy voice conflicting greatly with the advanced vocabulary in which it spoke.

Shadow bent his legs in preparation to run as he felt a final response making its way through his mind to give to the possessed doll. "No, I will survive because I am the Ultimate Lifeform! If you are to take the souls of every living thing on this planet, mine shall be the last!" Whether or not the doll had a response to this, Shadow didn't wait to find out. He knew that a discussion would only play into the Tails Doll's stubby little hands, giving it time to set a trap from which Shadow would likely never be able to escape. So, at speeds only Sonic could match, Shadow plowed straight into the group of reanimated bodies.

The initial impact was made mostly on Eggman's chair, sending it and its soulless occupant flying across the room to settle uselessly to the floor, the Doctor's remains pinned beneath it. As the other three Mobians now closed in to assault Shadow, however, the hedgehog made a quick discovery by a passing glance towards the wreckage he'd caused with his first attack. Fallen just beyond Eggman's reach was the ornate chest Shadow recalled being the one in which the Tails Doll could be safely contained. Shadow smirked. He'd assumed that the doll would have been ingenious enough to hide or dispose of the box already, but clearly Eggman's clumsiness had resulted in it still being with the Doctor the whole time. It seemed that no matter whose evil plans the elderly genius became involved in, Eggman would always find some way to mess things up, a trait Shadow now saw as quite fortunate in this situation.

Shadow came to a screeching halt and changed directions rapidly, in the process missing narrowly a full bodied charge by a once peaceful mother rabbit who clearly had been in athletics during her youth at one time judging by the force her blow had against the floor where Shadow had been. Swooping down with one hand while accelerating towards his new target, Shadow narrowly missed picking up the chest which was his goal by a white glove snatching it away half a second faster. Looking up, Shadow identified the annoying foe that now possessed the enchanted box as Knuckles, or rather Shadow recognized the fist as it pummeled him in the side of the face and sent the ebony hedgehog flying.

He was far from out yet, though, as Shadow regained his composure and twisted in midair to rebound back off a glass paned window back along his original path with fist extended. Unable to react in time to Shadow using his own attack's momentum against him, the demonically controlled Knuckles took Shadow's retaliation straight to his gut, knocking him back much like he'd done to Shadow and freeing the small chest from his grip. With one smooth flip, Shadow righted himself and grabbed the chest from midair, a smirk on his face as he looked up to the floating doll in pride. "Now that I have this, perhaps you might think twice about calling any further resistance 'useless'," Shadow commented.

He was smart enough to not try and capture the Tails Doll on his own right here and now, though, as Shadow expected the demonic creature certainly would have something else up its stitch work sleeves that would make it foolish to attack head on. Instead, Shadow ended his short gloating and continued with his original plan of escape, quickly making a dash for the now unguarded elevator before any of the downed zombie attackers could impede him further. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten just one as a small, young bunny now threw herself in his way. Shadow kept charging forward, however, knowing he could plow straight through the tiny rabbit far easier than any of the others he'd fought so far. His speed faltered, however, as Shadow couldn't help but see a defenseless child he was about to impale. He knew the real Cream was dead, that this was only a body possessed and under the command of a truly evil spirit that had murdered her to begin with, but seeing the young form in his path and knowing he was going to do great harm to it on purpose…

At the last moment, Shadow veered away and ran full speed into an adjacent window instead, breaking the glass on impact as he fell amongst the thousands of shards from the base's tower observatory towards the rest of the structure almost fifty feet below. Shadow didn't focus on the view or the sensation of falling, however, as the dark hedgehog closed his eyes in concentration. An emerald shone in his free hand as Shadow fished the contraband item he'd taken from Eggman's base earlier just in case of such an emergency and channeled its energy through himself. When he felt the focused power was at just the right level, Shadow envisioned a familiar hillside almost a mile away and shouted the mantra. "Chaos Control!" Shadow yelled over the rushing wind in his suicidal fall as a brilliant light engulfed him within the plummeting shower of glass and instantly dispersed, leaving only the shards of the window which were falling among him to hit the base's roof below.

"No fair, no fair, NO FAIR!!" a petulant child's voice tantrumed as the Tails Doll witnessed Shadow's unanticipated escape. "They are supposed to just stand still until I'm ready! What if I like playing with my food a little bit first, Hmm?! That doesn't mean it has to run away like this!" the doll fumed as Shadow had simply never stuck around long enough for it to capture his soul as well. After all, curiosity is what got Tails and Eggman to release the doll already before, through no especial persuasion from the doll itself, either, so why was Shadow able to overcome his own need to understand and get away?

_Well, at least I know that my real target couldn't possibly resist being curious for even a second,_ Tails Doll mulled as its mood lightened in thinking about how easy it would be for him to obtain the soul of the one it was still most interested in. _Shadow has a troubled soul anyways, not the most tasty. I'm better off leaving that one be. Still, thanks to that impatient black rodent I may need to act somewhat quickly before proof of my existence does get out. Where was I with poor little Miles last anyways? Oh yes, I remember…_

By this time, all the defeated or otherwise avoided corpses which the Tails Doll had reanimated as his minions were upright and gathered once more. "You mortals are just as useless dead as you were alive! Clearly, if I can hope to even develop a mockery of an undead army, I will be needing more soldiers," Tails Doll spoke out loud although only itself could hear its words now regardless. A minute or so of the doll pacing in midair by floating in tiny circles thinking, and the demonic puppet seemed to have found its idea. "Oh, and I think I know just the recruits who might be, 'willing'…" it answered itself as the twisted laughter of a demonic child echoed throughout the base.


	10. Chapter 10: You and What Army?

Things Best Forgotten

Disclaimer: If I actually owned Sonic and co., don't you think you'd be at least paying to read this if not play it in a game? XD

OK, so hopefully before somebody shoots me for taking so long with this chapter, I apologize. I kinda fell back into my old ways of playing video games every spare moment for a couple weeks or so, and, thus, it took far longer then it should to get this finished. As you can tell, though, this story is nearing its end already, with the final chapter and big climax expected (hopefully) to come out on Halloween itself. (It just seemed fitting. XD) Now, please enjoy and review!

Chapter 10: You and What Army?

_I almost wonder who's gonna to be crazier by the time this is all done with, Tails or me?_ Sonic pondered. His high velocity jog had taken him all around the unoccupied surrounding countryside while the stress relieving workout began to take its effects on the mellowing hedgehog. _If only I knew what was really goin' on in his huge brain right now… I doubt that will ever happen, though. I can't even understand half the words he uses sometimes when he gets all technical, _Sonic regretted, wondering if this was yet another reason he was unfit to be Tails' older brother and caretaker.

With a heavy sigh, the blue hedgehog came to a gentle stop in a large grassy field. _I don't know why he's gotta go and make things this hard on himself, though. I mean, sure we both lost some real good friends just a couple days ago, but why would Tails of all people let it drive him insane? He's got the smartest mind of all of us that are left, but now all he talks about is a black hedgehog just like me and some doll that looks like him that goes around eating peoples' souls! Sure there really __**was**__ that doll that looked like him, but…_

Sonic's train of thought was quickly interrupted, however, by a distant scream for help. "Sooooooniiiiiiic!!" a panicked female voice yelled loud enough to be clearly audible even at what must have been several miles distant.

Sonic recognized the voice in a heartbeat as well. "Amy!" Sonic answered in surprise, but with nowhere near the same volume as his feet already began to propel the blue hedgehog towards the noise at blinding speed. He recognized after just a minute the location the pink hedgehog's cry for help had come from, Amy's own house. Determined to arrive in time to save her from whatever emergency had just occurred, Sonic broke the sound barrier and arrived almost immediately with a loud boom at Amy's doorstep.

"Amy! What's goin' on?!" Sonic shouted as he placed his hand on the door to enter the small home and investigate. Movement from behind him, however, caused Sonic to quickly spin around and view the unwanted guest that had to be somehow involved in the problem here. "Eggman! What did you do to her?!" Sonic shouted as he cocked his fists for a quick brawl that was sure to ensue.

The large Doctor was oddly silent for a moment, however, as he stared blankly towards Sonic from his seat in the hovering Eggpod. After an awkward second or two in which he'd normally gloat or laugh in his own annoying manner, Eggman finally spoke up. "I thought her screams might lead you here, so that's why I allowed her a few more seconds before she was… disposed of," Eggman spoke up, in a tone much more malicious than Sonic ever remembered.

"W-WHAT?!" Sonic shouted as Eggman's admission struck the hedgehog dumb. _Amy is…? Murder? Eggman murdered her? No, this can't be right! Egghead can't be really killing everyone after all, can he? _Sonic debated in his mind while the lack of proof left him swimming in a sea of doubts.

"I even got an extra few as well. It was so nice of you to leave that Chao here for me to finish off that I somehow forgot back at the Rabbit's house, and Rouge was far less of a challenge than I'd thought," Eggman's sadistic voice continued on, now having a sense of mirth with it as he recited all the recent killings and his part in conducting them.

Sonic still couldn't believe it. Eggman was claiming responsibility for all these murders, and he had just arrived too late to stop the latest ones as well? It couldn't be true. But, if not Eggman, then who else? Clenching his fists so hard that his body began shaking, Sonic glared up at Eggman in fury. For a moment, Sonic almost wished that Tails' theory about the soul-devouring doll had been true. At least then, Sonic wouldn't have to do what he needed to now. "Eggman… I am going to KILL YOU!!" Sonic yelled as the sadistic goading and reality of almost all his friends' murders sent the hedgehog's mental capacities over the edge faster than he'd even thought possible. It was one thing to stop Eggman's robots from destroying or taking over a city, but when he'd actually bragged to Sonic's face about murdering those close to him…

"So, the great Sonic the Hedgehog does have a sensitive side, then," the Eggman in the chair before him continued on, undaunted by the frenzied look in the blue hedgehog's eyes that threatened to tear him apart with only a single gaze. "Such controlled anger, now finally finding its release… This is simply intoxicating!"

Sonic completely ignored the strange way Eggman now spoke. In fact, he ignored to even reply altogether as the blue hedgehog dashed up onto Eggman's floating chair fast enough to seem like he'd teleported and managed to lift the obese Doctor out from his seat with one hand on his collar. "You've gone way too far this time, Eggman! And now I'm going show you the consequences!" Sonic growled through his barred teeth as his other fist came forward and pummeled the Doctor square in the jaw.

To his amazement, however, the jaw broke and hung loosely on Eggman's face, but the large human showed no signs whatsoever of any kind of pain. As a matter of fact, from this close to the Doctor's face now, Sonic noticed a great many strange things wrong, such as the fact that Eggman's eyes didn't move, he never took a breath, and his facial expression seemed stiffened and unchanged. It appeared that Eggman was dead already, but Sonic knew that his one blow couldn't possibly have done that. "What on Mobius is goin' on here?!" a still enraged Sonic shouted as he released Eggman's body, only to be taken by surprise a second later by a brutal punch to his gut that threw him clear of the Eggpod entirely.

He landed on his face some few feet away and took a good couple seconds to recover before Sonic managed to get back upright. What he saw when he did look back up, however, only shocked the hedgehog even more. "Knuckles?! But… But how?! You were dead! No, wait, you are dead! So… ARRGGHH!" Sonic shouted as the confusion in his mind now gave the hedgehog an unbearable migraine to go with the fist shaped bruise on his chest from Knuckles' sneak attack.

"Heeee heee hee heee! You should see yourself right now! Such cluelessness and anger! And yet, you still haven't understood the one thing you've known all along," a different voice called out as Sonic looked over in its direction.

To his amazement, Sonic witnessed the same small doll of Tails from before, now floating on its own power in front of the reanimated corpses of the remaining Mobians that it had ethereally murdered, Amy and Rouge now standing among them as a blank eyed Cheese also hovered near Cream and Vanilla. "No… No! You can't be…! This can't be real!" Sonic shouted as reality, the same one that Tails had been promising to Sonic was true and not just crazy, began sinking in.

"Hee hee heee! The only thing unreal here, Sonic the Hedgehog, is that you never believed poor innocent Tails when you had the chance. I still don't see why you didn't eventually, to tell the truth! If he'd never lied like this before, then why would he start now?" the Tails Doll chided Sonic for his disbelief as the creepy stitch-marked smile on its face almost seemed to grin wider. "I had fun tormenting my larger self, I must admit. First appearing all over the house so he would become unsettled, then taking control of his dreams… I was actually quite surprised by the capacity of that young fox's bladder, weren't you?" the doll continued on, its voice seeming almost to laugh as it unraveled the entirety of its own demented schemes.

"You were doing that all along?!" Sonic shouted in surprise mixed with a new sense of seething anger that was now starting to grow.

"No, of course not! I'd never be satisfied for just scaring him enough to change the bedsheets," the Tails Doll replied, only too happy to expound further on its accomplishments just these last few days. "After purposefully falling from Tails' arms where I knew that gullible red idiot, Knuckles, would walk by, I orchestrated that pain Tails had which brought me into lovely Vanilla's home and kept you from stumbling across my handiwork too early. Although, I must admit, the ensuing melodrama once we arrived was entirely your doing and most entertaining!" the doll laughed.

"OK, that's enough!" Sonic replied in a now clearly enraged voice. "I don't care what you are or what you've done, I'm going to put a stop to it now!"

The Tails Doll only hovered in place unchanged, only its voice able to denote the doll's intentions or mood. "You don't wish to hear about how I've used all your friend's bodies as my own puppets? How they can never be returned if I am destroyed? Not even my plans for using them when I come for your precious 'little brother' next?" the Tails Doll asked, seeming like a child disappointed that no one wanted to play with it anymore.

Sonic's rage now boiled over at the final threat. "You leave Tails alone!!" Sonic screamed, now determined to defeat this menace and save his brother so as to have a chance to apologize later.

"Oh no… I'm afraid that Tails is precisely the innocent kind of soul that I need before I regain my full powers and conquer this wretched planet once and for all!" the Tails Doll's voice added as the childish tone dissolved into a demonically low, ominous growl. "And you, Sonic the Hedgehog, will hand deliver me right into young Miles' hands."

"Not in a million years!" Sonic shouted as he dashed forward to spin dash the defenseless doll in half, only to be frozen in place by some strange force as the red gem dangling from the doll's forehead glowed brightly.

"Oh, I've waited longer than that before, hedgehog…" the demonic voice of the Tails Doll continued as it crept ever closer to the immobilized hero. "And now, it is your turn to answer the question all these others have failed. Sonic, can you feel the sunshine?"

"Go to… Aaagghhh!" Sonic began to reply as a strange force now felt like it was ripping through his body, tearing away his very existence as he was helpless to resist.

"Such a bad influence," the Tails Doll only cackled as it painfully and slowly removed the hedgehog's soul from the cobalt body it had once inhabited, replacing it instead with a bit of its own essence. Once completed, Sonic's body once more stirred before standing calmly and unresponsive before the gleeful doll.

"Ah, what a delicious soul! Love, loyalty, and yet a pleasantly quick temper… Much more enjoyable than any of these others so far, except perhaps the young rabbit and Chao. I do hope that my larger self proves better than even these," the Tails Doll now spoke in an anxious manner, much like a child who couldn't wait for Christmas morning and his presents after getting a small one early. "Come now, Sonic, let's not keep your 'little brother' waiting…" the juvenile sounding doll snided as it floated down into Sonic's open hands like a miniature throne.

Wordlessly, the blue hedgehog then turned and led the way to his and Tails' shared home not far away, the other also zombified Mobians following suit.

* * *

Tails hoped Sonic wouldn't mind when he came back that all the chili dogs, both his and Tails', were gone. The young fox had seriously underestimated his own hunger in his refusal and outburst before, and there was something to be said about the sense of peace one got from a full stomach as well. _I just can't start eating like this all the time now, though, or I'll get too heavy to fly, _Tails thought to himself as he knew it would be tempting to make gluttony a habit for coping with everything going on right now. Luckily, Tails didn't really think it would be an issue.

The sudden intruder bursting into his home via the front door at that moment seemed to reinforce the idea as well.

Jumping halfway to the roof in his surprise, Tails immediately fixated on who had entered the small home's living room with him. What he saw terminated any sense of temporary peace and sanity Tails' meal and quiet time alone had given him. "Y-y-you!" Tails shouted as the stranger locked the door quickly behind him and turned back to face the stunned fox.

"Forget my name so soon already? I should be ashamed," the intruder, a black hedgehog with red striped quills muttered. "The doll. Do you have it?" Shadow instantly asked.

Tails was bewildered by the request. "N-no. You came and took it away just earlier, remember?" Tails asked, wondering if this person had some mental problem concerning their memory or something.

"I know that!" Shadow simply shouted back in reply, his voice a bit agitated and frazzled. "What I need to know is if that doll is here now!"

"Of course not. I haven't seen it since you came and took it away," Tails, quivering, quickly answered, hoping a fast response would keep the edgy hedgehog from harming him.

Shadow seemed to calm down considerably at Tails' reassurance, although his ever stern expression remained unchanged on his face. "It was coming here; I was sure of it…" Shadow seemed to mutter to himself, probably deciding that he'd beaten the demented puppet here. "Listen up, fox-boy, you and I are the only ones that realize the true identity of that doll, so we have to find a way to stop it together," Shadow proposed.

"Hang on!" Tails interjected as he finally got the nerve to speak back to the imposing hedgehog. "Ever since you left here, everyone thinks I've gone completely insane! But now, if I show to Sonic that you're actually real, maybe he'll finally believe me and decide to help, too!" Tails suggested, finding the black hedgehog again now giving him hope to convince Sonic of his sanity after all.

Shadow crossed his arms in annoyance at the suggestion. "Is that really as important as stopping a soul-eating monster from devouring the entire planet?" the impatient hedgehog remarked.

"But, if Sonic could help us…" Tails began to debate.

"Forget it. We don't that faker's help anyway," Shadow replied.

"'Faker'?" Tails muttered in confusion at the term.

Shadow briefly explained. "Your friend, Sonic, he looks like me, runs like me, but he's not even close to my level. I'm the Ultimate Lifeform."

Tails was unsure whether to be angry or not at Shadow's unfavorable bias against his older brother. However, Tails knew nothing about Shadow's powers save that a race between him and Sonic would probably be something to see, so fighting over the senseless claim would just be a distraction to them both.

Thankfully, Shadow broke the awkwardness of the moment by getting back on subject. "It will be here soon. We must prepare," Shadow warned while peeking out the front window cautiously, even this so called 'Ultimate Lifeform' now showing signs of anxiety, although Tails valued his life more than enough not to verbally announce his observation.

"Wait! Why here?!" Tails demanded instead as Shadow's prediction gave him cold chills.

"Because you are here. I think it wants your soul more than mine or any of the others, not that I understand why," Shadow gruffly explained while he witnessed the fox's eyes grow in fright and his face turn pale.

"Th-then why shouldn't we just run?" Tails proposed, seeing no reason to fall for the enemy's trap if they knew it was coming.

Shadow only scoffed. "I thought Eggman said you were supposed to be a genius," the hedgehog mocked as the answer to that question Shadow knew was obvious. "You want to just run forever? Wait until you and I are the only ones left on this planet and then try to stop this thing?"

Tails was too frightened to say anything in response. _The only ones left on the entire planet?! It can't be that strong! Surely Sonic or someone could…_ Tails began to console himself as he felt panic now tugging to overtake his rational thought.

Again, Shadow quickly continued the conversation with an air of urgency. "Look, I stole this back before that doll could get to me, too. It's our only chance. You just stand there and let this thing do whatever it wants to, and I'll sneak up and catch it," Shadow proposed the simple, yet hopefully effective plan to Tails as he produced in his hands the sinister chest from which the Tails Doll had now been freed twice.

"Wait, WHAT?!" Tails shrieked at the idea. Sure it sounded reasonable, at least as far as Shadow's role in it all went, but Tails very much disliked the role of playing bait to a demonic, soul-snatching doll that for some reason or another was coming for him next. "I mean, why shouldn't I be the one to catch it? I'm the one that let it out in the first place…"

"Because it's coming here for **your **soul, not mine. Remember?" Shadow answered with a snarl of impatience at having to constantly remind the fox of the simple fact. "Besides, I'm much faster and stronger. You don't really have a choice."

Tails gulped as he realized that Shadow probably spoke true. As much as he was loath to hand the protection of his very soul to some dark stranger he'd barely even met, Tails admitted there really was no choice. Unless…

"Hey, wait a second! Are you sure there's no other way to do this? One that preferably **doesn't** have me being the bait?" Tails asked, realizing that for some reason up until now he'd never questioned Shadow's authority on the matter despite the fox having no clue whether or not Shadow understood what was going on either.

"You got a better idea? I heard that thing say that this box is the only thing that can contain it," Shadow responded back in a condescending tone, likely wondering why the fox wouldn't just trust him when he obviously knew more than Tails did on the subject.

"Well, how about instead of just trapping it, we destroy it!" Tails proposed quickly.

"You must either be deaf or stupid," Shadow spat back, now a low tone in his voice betraying his almost peaking anger at the annoyances. "I told you the first time we met, the Tails Doll cannot be destroyed!"

"Sure it can!" Tails only shouted back. "We just have to find the right thing to destroy it with! It's secret weakness!"

"Like what? I'm all ears, fox boy," Shadow responded sarcastically. He was the only one to even get close enough and survive to tell about the hope this chest offered in catching the doll, but even Shadow was clueless as to a secret weakness of the floating patchwork menace.

"What about sunlight?" Tails suggested after a second.

Shadow only scoffed. "It's floating around in broad daylight right now, and you think the sun might hurt it?"

"Well, think about what it always says to people, 'Can you feel the sunshine?' Maybe that's a clue," Tails hypothesized.

Shadow's reaction was one of stunned silence for the first time now. "How… Who told you it said that?" Shadow remarked. He knew firsthand that the Tails Doll only said that once you were trapped, right before it ate your soul, or, at least in Shadow's case, attempted to do so. This begged the question of just how in the world Tails knew the saying if he was still alive, then.

"I had some… nightmares," Tails promptly answered, leaving out the details of that night to prevent embarrassing himself needlessly. "But what if I tried making a…?" Tails began to outline a backup plan for a concentrated sunlight weapon he could try to quickly assemble when there was a loud knock on the front door.

"Don't even think about it," Shadow warned in a grave tone as he saw Tails instinctively head to the door to see who the visitor was.

Taking the precautionary advice with a nod of acceptance, Tails instead discreetly glanced out a window to the person standing on his doorstep. Who he saw made him give a sigh of relief. "It's OK, it's only Sonic. I've got to let him in and explain all this," Tails spoke calmly as he reached for the lock on the door to let the blue hedgehog he'd been expecting for a few minutes now to enter.

"Do that, and we all die," Shadow repeated his warning, now sounding almost like a threat as he tried to scare Tails into obedience.

Tails just shook his head in disagreeance. "It's Sonic, and he's completely alone, too," Tails explained. "I don't care what you think about him, Sonic is my best friend. He'd never hurt me. If I just explain, I bet he'll even help us," Tails pleaded as he went ahead and unlatched the lock and began to open the door.

Immediately, Shadow dashed across the room faster than Tails could have imagined and slammed it back shut. "Last chance, fox. Either listen to me, or we both end up being food for that deranged puppet of yours!" Shadow called out, making no mistake in his voice that he was anything but dead serious.

"That doll wasn't fast enough to get you, right? Well, then that means it can't get Sonic either! I don't care what you think about him, either; I'm letting him in!" Tails responded loudly as he yanked the doorknob handle swiftly, catching the ebony hedgehog off guard on the sudden ferocity from the fox as he lost his restraining grip on the door and stumbled back.

As soon as the door finally opened, Sonic slowly walked in with a look of confusion. "Tails? What's goin' on in here?" the blue hedgehog asked as he instantly noticed the frazzled look of his vulpine brother and the other dark doppelganger of himself also in the living room.

Tails, quickly slamming shut the door behind Sonic, resisted the urge to rush the blue hedgehog for some much needed comfort. "It's a really long story, Sonic, and we may not have much time left, but…" Tails began to explain all the recent events and how he was right about the doll all along instead of being crazy. That is, until he noticed Sonic was holding his hands behind his back suspiciously. "Sonic? What's behind your back?" Tails asked, his tone already worried.

"Oh, just a little surprise I picked up on my run," Sonic replied with an unsettling grin as his hands moved forward slowly to reveal their terrifying contents…


	11. Chapter 11: The End?

Things Best Forgotten

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sonic and co., not even the Tails Doll. (Although I do own a large doll of Tails I like hugging occasionally. Umm... forget I said that...) Also, brief reference to 'Final Fantasy' in this chapter as well, but, again, I don't own that either.

And here it is, as promised! The conclusion to my second and most frightening long story, on Halloween itself! (You'd almost think that I had this idea all along, huh?) I'd love to thank the literally hundreds of people that have read and will read this story all the way through, and I give special thanks to all the great ones of you that even saw fit to leave reviews as well. This story may never have become completed had it not been for you guys, honestly.

But now, it's time for the cliffhanger to lift and to read about how the Tails Doll is finally defeated and peace restored, or will it? The story may be over, but is it really...

Chapter 11: The End?

Tails realized all too late his mistake as Sonic's hands brought forth the one hated object Tails had learned to fear most. "NO!! Sonic, quick, get rid of it! Throw it back out…!" Tails began to shout as he recoiled from the harmless looking doll in the blue hedgehog's arms.

"Whee hee hee heee heee! Oh, it's far too late for that now, Tails!" a voice seemed to materialize from the doll like magic while it slowly floated up from Sonic's hands, stunning Tails since he'd never witnessed the doll doing either of these things before.

Shadow, however, was unsurprised. "Now do you believe me?!" the angry hedgehog yelled at Tails when he realized their plan was now all but ruined. "I was about to warn you that your pal Sonic might already be one of them!"

"Wait, one of who?!" Tails shouted back in a clear panic already. The doll was here and Tails knew the time for questions had ended, but not understanding exactly what was going on didn't make Tails any more confident in what actions he should take.

The Tails Doll only seemed to smile at the fox's frenzied confusion, the actual stitch-working of the demented puppet moving itself into a demonic, jagged grin. "Why, just like I myself am now manifested as a toy, an object to be manipulated and made to do as a child may please, so are your friends, young Miles," the doll playfully boasted. "Their souls are no more, and the shells that are left now belong to me as well! Is that not right, Sonic?" the doll continued as the now rigid blue hedgehog nodded once and then unexpectedly lunged for Tails at full speed.

Luckily, Shadow's boasting from before proved accurate when a flash of black intercepted the one of blue just feet before the petrified fox and sent Sonic flying across the living room and into a far wall. Tails, too terrified to move upon witnessing his best friend and older brother trying to hurt him, simply watched what was once Sonic fall after his impact to the wall and collapse over a small bookshelf, his body contorted in ways no living thing could survive as it lay there with the blue hedgehog's spine bent over in half. To add to the horror of the sight, however, Sonic, or at least what was left of Sonic now, actually recovered from the brutal blow and began to stand back up, the broken bones or injuries the blue hedgehog's corpse had sustained either mending themselves or at least registering no pain as the Tails Doll again laughed.

"Hee hee hee hee heeeee! Oh, Shadow… If I cannot be destroyed, then what makes you think those I control may be instead?" the doll taunted while it enjoyed thoroughly the situation and feelings of fear that, by now, came rolling off of Tails and feeding its continued blissful state.

Shadow, undaunted yet clearly realizing the danger they were in, quickly turned to Tails before Sonic could recover. "Change of plans. It's too dangerous for you here. Run, go someplace safe and stay there! I'll deal with this overstuffed puppet," Shadow commanded, knowing their only chance now was for him to capture the doll within its chest before the Tails Doll got bored and decided to start devouring their souls instead of playing with its food.

"But, the plan…!" Tails objected quickly, although he wanted nothing more than to do exactly what Shadow had told him at the moment.

"That plan went out the door as soon as **you** decided to open it!" Shadow shouted back, clearly annoyed at the fox's insistence on staying and talking when at any moment either the doll or Sonic could act. "I can't fight this thing **and** keep you safe at the same time! Now, move it!" Shadow commanded in a brutal tone.

Thankfully, Shadow's blunt and also frightening shouts were enough to snap Tails out of his fear-induced paralysis. Nodding quickly, Tails did an immediate spin on his heels and ran for the rarely used door at the back of his house, only to find that he'd wasted too much time already when Eggman, Amy, and Rouge suddenly emerged from the kitchen in his path, blocking the fox's only escape left on this floor.

Standing in place once more because of his shock, Tails couldn't help but think that this wasn't really happening. These people he knew and called friends, with the exception of Eggman of course, would never really…

Unfortunately, Tails' doubts were shattered as he snapped out of his terrified trance just in time to dodge a gigantic Piko Piko Hammer that whizzed overhead by mere inches due to his timely duck. Seconds afterwards, Tails looked up again just in time to jump over a whirling tornado kick from Rouge and was also forced to use his tails to change course in midair to avoid a volley of laser fire emitted by Eggman's pod. Realizing that he was in real danger here as well as with Shadow, Tails used the moment he gained from dodging the attacks to flee to someplace he knew he could use as his own personal fortress if need be, his underground lab.

Dashing down the entrance hidden in the floor nearby faster than he could recall ever doing so before, Tails quickly descended into the solid concrete vault and secured a heavy, steel vault door behind him, sealing the fox away from the house above. Granted, the function of the extremely heavy door was more to keep any explosions or experiments gone wrong from getting out into Tails' home, but he didn't doubt that the function was just as useful in reverse as well. Stepping away from the door quickly while loud banging began coming from it, no doubt the small group of once familiar zombies after him trying to break through, Tails huddled near the center of the hangar and the Tornado biplane.

Looking over the situation, Tails finally began to calm down from his terror induced panic. As long as that door held, which Tails realized after several minutes that it would, then he was safe in here from both his zombified friends and that demonic doll of himself. Also, having anticipated someday possibly using his underground workshop/hangar as a shelter, Tails knew that he'd hidden almost a month's or more worth of provisions down here, too, so, if it really came down to it, he could attempt to wait out the danger as well. As a matter of fact, the more Tails thought about his current position, the more he began to relax ever so slightly. At least for now, Tails knew he was safe, and his concern gradually turned from himself to Shadow and his success at stopping the Tails Doll alone.

That was, until Tails felt something move below his feet. Looking quickly to the ground in hopes that it was just a trick of his mind, Tails searched for the cause of the movement. But, although he could feel what seemed like almost rhythmic beats coming from the cement floor below him, Tails saw nothing around vibrating or moving that could create the small tremors. A feeling of dread began to rise as he tentatively put one ear to the floor to listen, and almost immediately Tails, pale faced again, figured out what was wrong.

Scurrying away quickly from where he'd been standing moments ago, Tails narrowly avoided the shower of pulverized concrete as something broke through from below with a mighty force. Turning to face the intruder from across the large workshop, Tails soon realized his mistaken sense of safety had been a bit premature as the figure of a familiar burrowing red echidna now advanced towards him slowly. "K-Knuckles, please, don't!" Tails shouted as the fox cowered in a corner and tried to conceal himself behind random technical equipment and spare parts.

Immune to the frightened kit's calls, however, Knuckles only swept the miscellaneous items away with his fists, revealing Tails sitting in the corner shaking with both hands on his head, ready for a painful blow that would likely knock him out until the Tails Doll could return to harvest his soul later. Looking up with tear filled eyes, Tails saw what was once his friend raise back a fist for just such a knockout blow and closed his eyes against the pain to come. _I can't believe I'm going to die like this! I always thought it could maybe happen fighting Eggman someday, but here in my own workshop by someone I know? _Tails' mind raced to make peace before it was over. However, instead of that feeling of finality Tails had expected right now, the fox found himself clenching his hands in determination. _Well, I won't let it happen!_

His sudden burst of courage spurring the kit into action even as Knuckles' fist came down at full force, Tails countered the move by grabbing the echidna's arm in mid-swing and pulling down with the force of the blow, deflecting the aim of the spiked fist into the wall next to him with enough of an impact to actually get it stuck into the concrete. While the somewhat shocked echidna tried to pull himself free, Tails then made a dash for another part of his workshop and activated a machine that produced a slowly growing portal of energy on a pedestal nearby.

_I know I've never tested this thing before, but it's just got to work now! _Tails thought as his fingers and eyes danced across a computer controlling the machine, powering it up as quickly as possible. He looked up for a moment when he heard a loud noise across the workshop and saw Knuckles' reanimated corpse finally rip its fist free from its concrete prison and begin advancing on him once more. _Come on, come on…!_ Tails nervously shouted to himself as he watched the status bar of the machine's readiness crawl ever so slowly towards completion. Tails already realized, however, that Knuckles would be upon him before the device had reached enough charge to be entirely safe.

Realizing he had no other choice, Tails dashed away from the computer console moments before Knuckles' second errant punch destroyed it entirely, and the fox leapt into the glowing energy portal still wavering in the air. As soon as he touched the floating aura, Tails felt a searing heat and a blinding flash that lasted no more than a moment before he fell a short distance onto some sort of solid ground. Wincing in pain from the experience, Tails slowly got up and glanced around to find out if the device had worked. _Yes! I did it! I was able to artificially re-create a Chaos Control warp field! _Tails thought in jubilation as he realized he wasn't dead and had now escaped the undead that had him trapped in his workshop. That is, until he recognized where exactly he'd been warped to…

_Wait, am I in…? _Tails' sense of joy quickly deteriorated as he recognized the familiar indoors location. He had somehow forgotten in his rush to designate a point of arrival for his teleportation device, which meant it had simply taken him to the only location that had gone through Tails' mind at the time where he usually felt safe, his upstairs bedroom. Realizing this mistake and that he was nowhere near safe at this location either, especially with the sound of Shadow and the Tails Doll fighting still coming from downstairs loud and clear, Tails quickly made a move to his room's single window, intending to jump out and fly as far from his home as he could until he collapsed.

However, even this idea was proven futile as one peek out his window before opening it showed Mrs. Vanilla, Cream, and Cheese all standing guard outside and watching the house for any such escape. Tails knew that if he attempted to simply break through and fly away now, one of them would raise an alarm, and likely within seconds Tails would be forced to try to outrun his dead brother who would give chase. Dead or alive, Tails knew who would win that high-stakes game of tag in the end.

And so Tails found himself trapped. He'd done so many things right: choosing his workshop to take shelter in at first, defending himself against Knuckles' full force assault, and even risking his life to a highly dangerous experiment to enact his escape. But, in the end, his fear still caused him to mess up, and now all that seemed to mean nothing. With his last shreds of hope now stripped from him, Tails found little more to do than huddle tightly beneath his bed's covers and wait for someone to find him there crying.

Seconds later, Tails noticed the noises from downstairs abruptly cease, signaling the end of what must have been an epic battle between the immortal doll and the self-proclaimed 'Ultimate Lifeform'. As much as he listened, though, Tails couldn't be sure of the victor until he heard footsteps coming to the second floor of the house. As Tails quaked in fear, the noises stopped just outside his still unhinged door. Whoever or whatever it was now stood only feet from the quivering mass of blankets that was all that could be seen of Tails. "Whenever I said to run someplace safe, I didn't mean just hide in your bed," the unmistakable voice of Shadow called out from the location in the doorway.

Tails felt his heart suddenly leap as his eyes shot open quickly beneath his cocoon of blankets. It was Shadow! Had he actually beaten the Tails Doll and saved everyone?! Feeling a sense of relief he'd never had in this magnitude before, Tails immediately tossed aside the covers and turned back towards Shadow with a gigantic smirk of thankfulness across his muzzle.

That same smile froze solid in horror no sooner than Tails' gaze looked back in Shadow's direction. Now floating just feet from his face as Shadow did indeed stand back at the broken doorway, the Tails Doll laughed. "Wheeeee heee hee hee hee heeeee! Oh, little Tails! If only you could enjoy the look on your face right now as much as I do!" the doll spoke, seeming almost on the verge of losing control of itself in its complete mirth from Tails' sudden horror.

Tails only backed away slowly on his bed, trying to put any amount of distance he could between him and the levitating doll. However, the Tails Doll only floated forwards as he did so to keep the unsettling distance, and Tails quickly ran out of room on the bed to retreat to. "You really thought any living thing might defeat me? So naïve…" the doll only continued to taunt him as it still laughed as if the whole thing was the best practical joke it had ever heard of. "But, perhaps it is that same innocence mixed with genius that has attracted me to your soul above all others. That, and because we seem to both share other 'similarities' as well," it then brought up the strange resemblance of the two.

"NO! Leave me alone! You can't be real! None of this is real!" Tails shouted desperately as he finally found his voice again for what could be the last time.

The Tails Doll only cocked its head eerily to one side at his outburst, however. "You doubt if this is real? Perhaps now you actually **are** starting to become crazy," the demonic plaything joked. "Oh, but we can't have that now, can we? I wouldn't want your soul tainted after all the pain I've gone through to cultivate it, nurture it with fear, holding off until this very moment for the harvest when your terror is finally at its most ripe…" the doll muttered in glee.

Hearing this only drove the cornered fox into a rage. To be completely trapped and scared out of his wits, and at the same time his captor having played him like a game the whole time as well gave Tails that last impulse to fight back just like before with Knuckles. _I shredded this thing into pieces before, and I can do it again!_ Tails resolved as the fox lunged forward to grab the floating puppet. Unfortunately, the Tails Doll knew all too well the impulses of a cornered animal, and no sooner had Tails' gloved hands touched the crudely stitched toy then the fox was forced to pull them away in extreme pain.

"Heeeee heee heee! I had a feeling you would never give up so easily! That is exactly why yours is the final soul I need!" the doll laughed again as a noticeable black aura of flames surrounded it.

"Ah…" Tails whimpered as he held both his hands gingerly from the burns they had sustained even through his gloves. "What… what do you mean?" Tails couldn't help but ask, trying to stall for time, perhaps, but knowing it did him no good regardless.

The doll almost seemed to swell or grow in size as it proudly responded, "For millions of years I have been trapped inside this bothersome crystal, cut off from my true power and freedom by a race of Mobians long since extinct. But, I vowed at my banishment that foul day that once I had gathered the energy of the soul of the one who would have my own form, I would be free once more! So, imagine my horror when that fool, Robotnik, grafted me into an image of a two-tailed mutant like you! And yet, nothing compared to the joy once you released me, and I found that the one soul I needed had finally come despite that fat oaf's interference!" the Tails Doll shouted in an excited form of jubilation at the final retelling of its long and patient past before it now seized the future of the planet forever. It's voice no longer seemed childish and playful, but more deep and ominous as the aura around it began to expand outwards in a pitch-black fiery splendor and the gem on the doll's forehead now shown in the center of it all like a red sun, an awesome yet unsettling display of all the energy it had already obtained from the souls before Tails' own. "The power you see before you is only a mere fraction of my might, young Miles! Once I have added your soul to those of all your closest friends and enemies, the entire planet will know nothing but fear for the rest of eternity!" the now barely recognizable Tails Doll shouted triumphantly.

Tails was speechless at the display of otherworldly power before him. He knew he couldn't let this happen, he had to do **something**, but he didn't have a single clue how to combat a thing like this. His idea to use sunlight as a weapon was useless now as the doll's black aura bloated out any source of illumination entirely, and, to his complete horror once more, Tails found that something was restraining his muscles like in his nightmare, rendering him unable to move at all. _No… __**NO!!**_ Tails wailed in his mind. _This can't be happening! Something has to happen now, right? Somebody help!_

"Still you cling to hope? You and this planet are already beyond saving, Tails! Soon all will be consumed by darkness! If you must feel hope for anything, let it be that you will not suffer much longer," the Tails Doll spoke ominously as Tails could almost swear he saw the doll's mouth itself moving and separating while it talked, emitting blasts of red heat from its twisted grin like the inside of a furnace. "Your fear has driven me, fed me, and these foolish friends of yours were but appetizers to slack my hunger, but now I have finally waited long enough for the main course; your soul, and, after that, the worlds'! So tell me, Miles Prower," the demonic being in front of Tails paused briefly, "Can you feel the sunshine?"

Tails struggled for a moment against his invisible bonds in a futile attempt to escape, knowing that his last moments had come. However, Tails' failing courage prompted one final response, and why he'd chosen for these to be his last words Tails might never know. "Yes, I do! And it brightens up my day from evil like you!" the fox shouted.

Amused, the Tails Doll let out a terrible chuckle to shake Hades itself. "Then you shall be the last to answer so!"

Almost immediately, Tails felt a powerful rending force in his abdomen, like a surgeon trying to remove his ribcage from his chest by ripping it out of his flesh whole. Unable to remain strong or determined in the face of such terror and pain, Tails could only scream. He felt himself dying as the very force of his being was sucked from his body like a milkshake up a straw, yet, though he grew weaker and weaker, the pain only intensified more and more. In moments, Tails was screaming at the loudest possible volume, and still it wasn't enough to express the agony. His last rational thought was that his body would remain screaming long after he was actually dead, and then thought itself was ripped from the fox's consciousness. Tails was only aware of a black, nameless void for a mere second, the maniacal laughing of a triumphant and well fed demon over his corpse, and then nothing at all.

* * *

The splash of cold liquid over his face revived the fox like a thunderclap as Tails leapt forward into a sitting position fast enough to give the blue hedgehog standing nearby and holding a small bucket a fright as well. "Holy…! Gees, you about scared me ta death, bro!" Sonic shouted as he quickly calmed down from Tails' unexpected jerk. "At least I've finally got ya up, though. What on Mobius is wrong with you this morning?" Sonic demanded as the noticeably concerned and equally annoyed hedgehog tossed the empty water pail away carelessly.

Tails, completely dumbfounded for the moment, stared back at Sonic as if the blue hedgehog were some kind of apparition in purgatory here with him before finally finding his voice once more to respond. "Wha- what do you mean, Sonic?" Tails asked quietly, finding that his throat for some reason seemed to be worn raw.

"I mean, why have you been screamin' loud enough to wake up people on Earth from here all night long?!" Sonic replied, his impatience showing as he tapped his foot on the floor at the foot of Tails' bed rapidly.

"Wait, all night? So, I'm just waking up now?" Tails asked in a clearly confused tone.

"Yeah, but I'm sure you had the rest of Mobius up about a half hour ago, bud," Sonic responded, the edge working its way out of his voice gradually as he realized something was clearly wrong with the fox. "You must've been in some kind of nightmare, huh, bro?" Sonic more stated than asked, the hedgehog's voice betraying the magnitude of which he suspected that Tails' dreams must have actually frightened him.

Tails was silent a moment, the reality of the improbable situation slowly sinking its way into his mind. All that he'd just been through, was just a simple nightmare? "I… I guess so…" Tails stuttered in his still shell-shocked state.

Sonic suppressed the urge to laugh at the answer. "You 'guess so'?! Tails, that bucket of water isn't the only reason your bed is soaked right now," Sonic quizzically informed the still frazzled kit.

_Wait, what does he mean by… _Tails' mind raced to decipher what Sonic had meant until moving one of his legs closer to himself without thinking revealed a clue as to the answer. "Oh no… Not again," Tails moaned as he recognized the location of the dampness on his mattress covers.

"Hang on a sec, Tails, 'not again'? You got some kind of problem with this all the sudden I should know about?" Sonic asked curiously. It was hard to tell whether he was genuinely concerned for the fox on this issue or just making a joke at his expense, however.

Tails made sure to respond quickly this time, though, either way. "No, it's just that in my nightmare I dreamed I also… well…" Tails explained, now unsure if he should be embarrassed by the accident or overjoyed that it could mean the whole ordeal he'd just gone through really was all in his head.

Sonic only smirked in response to Tails' humiliated explanation. "Well, don't worry about it too much, OK, bro? The way you were screaming towards the end there, I'm only happy that you're still fine," Sonic comforted the fox as he gave the kit a rare glance which betrayed the softness in his heart for his adopted little brother. "But, if you think I'm gonna clean that up, then ya really must be dreaming!" And, just like that, the brief look was gone, replaced now by the two's joined laughter.

"Yeah, I guess that should have been my first clue that I was dreaming in the first place," Tails spoke up in between chuckles.

Sonic's laughter seemed to end prematurely at this statement while he turned back to Tails with a look of mild disgust. "Wait, you mean in your dream I actually…?" Sonic asked.

Tails answered back with only a nod and enjoyed the various facial expressions Sonic had immediately after learning this, ranging from shock to disgust to wanting to be sick and various mixtures of the three. He was over-exaggerating, of course, Tails knew in an effort to make him feel better and take his mind off the embarrassing situation. It was Sonic's method of showing care by acting like the opposite and being goofy, and it never failed to make Tails laugh ever since he was only a tiny kit.

Finally through with his over the top facial expressions, Sonic turned back to Tails curiously. "So, should I even ask what else was in that dream of yours?" the hedgehog jokingly commented.

For a minute, Tails contemplated telling Sonic of the humiliating situation at Mrs. Vanilla's house in his dream where he'd overreacted quite a bit. "No, probably not," Tails simply answered with a grin.

Sonic knew he was being left out of the loop on something based on Tails' now playful grin, but decided it was best to let the subject go for his own sake. "Fair enough, then. You feel like gettin' out of bed now, though?" Sonic asked, wondering how Tails could stand to still be sitting on a half soiled and half soaked mattress.

"Heh heh… Yeah, I suppose so," Tails muttered while the fox slowly stood up out of bed next to Sonic. "I don't ever want to have a nightmare like that one again," the fox commented as well while Sonic led the way downstairs to breakfast.

"Hey, don't say I didn't warn ya, little bro," Sonic added in a patronizing voice as he began rounding up food in the kitchen while Tails stood nearby.

The young fox was confused by this, however. "Huh?" Tails broke in, wondering just when Sonic had predicted such nightmares.

"Don't ya remember, Tails? Last night when I'd told ya you were eating too much cake before bed and it would give you nightmares?" Sonic answered quickly, his back turned from the fox as he spoke since the hedgehog was preoccupied mixing some instant breakfast meal for the two of them.

It took a moment for Tails to successfully recall the events of yesterday. _Oh, of course! Yesterday was my birthday! Everyone was here, too! Amy brought a huge cake with two iced tails on it that wrote out my age, Rouge and Shadow gave me some top secret GUN technology to test out, Knuckles forgot to get anything, and Sonic gave me a new expensive part I've been wanting for the X-Tornado!_

_Wait? X-Tornado? How come I thought I had that already if it's only…?_ Tails caught himself wondering before he realized that it was only in his dreams that the X-Tornado didn't exist yet and that he didn't know who Shadow was either. In real life, he now remembered he knew both existed quite well. _So, another few things that should have warned me I missed… _Tails chided himself slightly as he at least felt relieved to know for sure now that it was all a nightmare.

A few sharp knocks on the living room door across from them broke Tails out of his quiet thinking suddenly while Sonic turned his head as well to look back at the silent fox. "Yoo hoo? Mobius to Tails? You want ta get that, little bro?" Sonic requested as he was still busy preparing their meal.

Nodding consent a moment later as Tails' brief shock at being called back from his mental daydreaming wore off, the fox made his way over to the front door and opened it just after a second set of soft knocks were heard from the other side.

"Good morning, Tails!" the energetic young bunny on the other side greeted him from his doorstep as the chao floating over her shoulder replied in kind using its own undecipherable language.

"Oh, Hiya, Cream! What are you doing here so early?" Tails immediately asked, not accustomed to visitors at this point in the morning.

"Why not be outside? It's such a beautiful day today! I could just sit here and feel the warm sunshine all day!" Cream responded with a large, innocent smile.

The words she had used didn't have the intended effect on Tails, however, as the fox involuntarily backed away from the doorway and the polite bunny, looking a little pale all of the sudden.

Cream instantly noticed this and became concerned. "Tails? Are you feeling OK? Did I say something wrong?" she guessed, her voice now clearly apologetic.

"Uh, no, I'm fine, Cream," Tails quickly recovered and tried to talk his way out of explaining his whole terrifying nightmare to her now. "But, Umm… Did you have any reason in particular to come visit?" Tails asked again, only this time emphasizing why she'd walk the considerable distance to his home from hers if it was only to say hello and what a beautiful day it was.

Cream's excited smile returned instantly once again as she reached for something concealed behind her back. "It's because I wanted to give you your birthday present, Tails! It wasn't ready yesterday for the party, so I had to let mommy work on it a bit for me before I gave it to you today," Cream explained, her excitement at waiting to reveal the present to Tails seeming to mount until she couldn't hold off any longer.

"Oh, really? OK, then, what did you get me?" Tails asked, Cream's excitement proving contagious as the fox looked forward to seeing what gift Cream was about to give him.

Cream chuckled lightly at Tails' own impatience as she grabbed whatever was behind her back and prepared to show it to the eager fox. "Just promise me you won't laugh, though. I'm still not that good with stitching yet," Cream warned as she then showed Tails something that she'd worked on creating herself for the past week or so.

In the young rabbit's hands now sat a crudely stitched and somewhat deformed doll that was clearly designed to look like him. Even more, it also contained a red, fluffy pom-pom on a wire sown to its forehead, in the exact same way the Tails Doll's gem was attached to its head in his nightmare. "Taa Daa! Remember when you showed me that game you liked so much called 'Final Fantasy'? It's you as a moogle, Tails!" Cream giggled in delight while the homemade gift was at last revealed.

Tails didn't respond. As a matter of fact, the fox didn't make a single noise or movement whatsoever. He stared transfixed at the doll in Cream's hands in front of him for a moment, his face an unreadable mixture of shock, horror, and surprise, before turning completely pale and collapsing straight backwards to the floor.

"Tails! Oh no! What's wrong with him, Mr. Sonic?!" Cream squealed in sudden terror as she witnessed him faint right in front of her.

Sonic, who luckily had been watching at the moment the event had occurred gingerly placed a hand on his brother's head and chest to check if Tails was really even alive still, and sighed in relief when he realized the fox was indeed fine. "Beats me, Cream, but it looks like he just fainted," Sonic mentioned as he lifted the unconscious fox onto the living room sofa carefully.

"Will he be OK?" the frightened bunny quickly asked, hoping that she wasn't at all the cause for this sudden emergency.

"He'll be fine once he wakes up," Sonic comforted the scared young rabbit. "My only guess is that he liked your gift so much he couldn't take the excitement maybe," the blue hedgehog added with a shrug.

"You really think so?" Cream asked happily as both stood over the fainted fox, now waiting patiently for Tails to revive again, neither understanding the true reason for his collapse in the first place.


End file.
